Estranged Notions: Are Metaphysical First Principles Universally True?

Yesterday's post:

Are Metaphysical First Principles Universally True?

Estranged Notions: The March for Scientism

Today's post:

The March for Scientism

In which Carl Olson responds to the March for Science with nonsensical waffle and attacks on strawmen.

Estranged Notions: Is Real Knowledge Only Scientific Knowledge?

Today's post (well, yesterday's by the time I'm done):

Is Real Knowledge Only Scientific Knowledge?

The basic problem with this article is that all of its important premises are literally, simply false.

Estranged Notions: Reason’s Bunker: The One-Sidedness of the Modern Mind

Today's post:

Reason’s Bunker: The One-Sidedness of the Modern Mind

Estranged Notions: An Agnostic’s Assessment Of New Atheist Attitudes

Today's post:

An Agnostic’s Assessment Of New Atheist Attitudes

The agnostic in question is John Humphrys, veteran BBC presenter and journalist (and terror of politicians). One might possibly have hoped for a bit less of the strawman approach when dealing with the ‘New Atheists’, but I'm not sure how much of this is down to Nelson's reporting.

Estranged Notions: Is God Too Complex To Be The Creator?

Today's post:

Is God Too Complex To Be The Creator?

This is just the old canard about ‘divine simplicity’. Unfortunately, these days we have better definitions of simplicity, and handwaving by defining God as a mind with no parts is no longer a believable approach.

(Also, it's worth noting that the idea of an absolute beginning to the universe is if anything less strongly supported now than in the past; the latest results are consistent with theories of eternal inflation—which, contra some apologetic claims, are not ruled out by the BGV theorem, and indeed Guth (the G of BGV) is on record as regarding eternal inflation as the most likely result.)

Estranged Notions: Answering the 5 Objections to Proving God’s Existence

Today's post:

Answering the 5 Objections to Proving God’s Existence

These are Augros' answers to the objections posed in his previous post, and almost all of them are just as bad as anyone could expect.

Estranged Notions: The Myth of the Free-Thought Parent

Today's post:

The Myth of the Free-Thought Parent

Estranged Notions: Can Something Actually Cause Itself to Exist?

Today's post:

Can Something Actually Cause Itself to Exist?

Estranged Notions: 3 Easy Steps to Show that Absolute Truth Exists

Today's post:

3 Easy Steps to Show that Absolute Truth Exists

Estranged Notions: Why Science Hasn’t Disproved Free Will: A Review of Alfred Mele’s “Free”

Today's post:

Why Science Hasn’t Disproved Free Will: A Review of Alfred Mele’s “Free”

Feser attacks a strawman here by focusing on Libet's original experiments only, and completely ignoring the subsequent investigations along similar lines; the Wikipedia article Neuroscience of free will gives a useful summary.

The other issue of course is that “free will” is not exactly a well-defined concept, and “do we have free will” appears to be a wrong question.

(I hadn't previously noticed that Feser had written for that odious organ the City Journal, which seems to exist to distill out the worst of allegedly-‘intellectual’ conservatism and concentrate it in one steaming pile.)

Estranged Notions: Why Reality Includes More (Not Less) Than You May Think

Today's post:

Why Reality Includes More (Not Less) Than You May Think

Kreeft thinks he can refute reductionism by means of inane schoolboy logic ("it's a universal negative claim! there could be a counterexample anywhere in the universe!"). Needless to say this position would be laughed at by any sane philosopher.

However Kreeft doesn't stop digging there; he plunges headlong into vitalism by claiming that "souls" can "defy" gravity—a living person can jump, a dead one generally can't—which makes me wonder whether he thinks that jumping cheetah robots have souls.

Estranged Notions: Answering 5 More Common Objections to the Resurrection

Today's post:

Answering 5 More Common Objections to the Resurrection

“Common” objections? These are ridiculous strawmen.

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.

Estranged Notions: Three Bad Attitudes Atheists Have Towards Theists

Today's post:

Three Bad Attitudes Atheists Have Towards Theists

Estranged Notions: Faith, Reason, and God: A Socratic Dialogue

Another recent pre-purge article:

Faith, Reason, and God: A Socratic Dialogue