Estranged Notions: Atheism and the Personal Pronoun

Today's post:

Atheism and the Personal Pronoun

More lame attempts to ‘refute’ materialism using trivial arguments about consciousness.

Estranged Notions: Why Having a Heart of Gold is Not What Christianity is About

Today's post:

Why Having a Heart of Gold is Not What Christianity is About

So apparently Christianity isn't about ethics but rather “the explosive emergence of a new world”. 2000 years on, and the same old world is turning just as it always did. Isn't this argument starting to wear a bit thin?

Estranged Notions: Science Reveals Who We Are is Determined by How We Are

Today's post:

Science Reveals Who We Are is Determined by How We Are

Misrepresents the science, and goes downhill from there.

Estranged Notions: Why the Church is Ahead of Mathematicians on Ecumenical Dialogue

Today's post is from Stacy Trasancos:

Why the Church is Ahead of Mathematicians on Ecumenical Dialogue

Even by previous standards this one is bad, equating a trivial descriptive diagram with an actual predictive model.

A year of Notional Estrangement

The Great Purge was a year ago today (give or take some hours either way).

Stats since then: over 157 thousand pageviews, over 17 thousand comments.

So consider this a feedback thread (not an open thread, I'm leaving the existing one of those open). Anything I should do differently?

Estranged Notions: Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

Today's post:

Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

Starts off by answering the wrong question, then proceeds to deploy argument by assertion (“God does X” ... yes, and you know this how?).

Estranged Notions: The Real War on Science

Bit of an oddball article this time around:

The Real War on Science

I'd sum this one up as “likes mathematical models and demarcating science from metaphysics, dislikes Big Data and string theory”. On demarcating science and metaphysics he rightly says that Aristotle made no such distinction; but apparently fails to miss that the demarcation in modern times is demanded not by scientists, but by philosophers and theologians in order to protect their metaphysical territory from the incursion of awkward scientific facts.

Estranged Notions: Divine Hiddenness and Human Disclosure

Today's post:

Divine Hiddenness and Human Disclosure

The motivated reasoning is strong in this one.

Estranged Notions: What Questions Do You Have for Catholics and Atheists?

No real content today, just a request for questions for a Q&A series:

What Questions Do You Have for Catholics and Atheists?

Estranged Notions: The Challenge of Ontological Disproofs

Today's post:

The Challenge of Ontological Disproofs

Estranged Notions: Monogenism or Polygenism?: The Question of Human Origins

So we get Feser's part 2, and it's just “Adam and Eve and Ted and Alice” over again:

Monogenism or Polygenism?: The Question of Human Origins

This insistence on an all-or-nothing model of rationality or sapience (a ‘rational soul’ which is either present or absent) is ridiculous.

Estranged Notions: Knowing an Ape from Adam

More from Feser:

Knowing an Ape from Adam

This part (1 of 2) is pretty vacuous; just skips over the awkward parts by asserting (via a broken link) that the immateriality of intellect is already “shown”, and then recites various dogmatic statements from popes and theologians. Nothing resembling either evidence or argument.

Estranged Notions: Does Religion Really Have a “Smart-People Problem”?

A subversion of the usual rule about headline questions: Barron thinks the answer is “no”, but he is wrong :-)

Does Religion Really Have a “Smart-People Problem”?

Estranged Notions: Three False Christs: The Myth, the Mortal, and the Guru

Enough strawmen here to fill any number of stables:

Three False Christs: The Myth, the Mortal, and the Guru

Olson's primary choice of targets are those noted scholarly experts Dan Brown, Deepak Chopra, and Christopher Hitchens; no mention of anyone with much actual credibility (such as, say, recent academic publications) on the topic. Also commits the error of treating the gospels as a consistent unit, and ignoring the inconsistencies.