AHS Annual General Meeting

I am doing the AHS Annual General Meeting next weekend in Birmingham.. go here. AHS AGM 2012: The Evil God Challenge with Stephen Law 01:50, Thursday, 28th of June 2012 in AGM , Events Stephen Law AHS AGM Talk at 15:00 on Sunday 8th July Those who believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing and supremely benevolent God face a very significant problem - there appears to be overwhelming empirical evidence against what they believe. The world contains so much evil seemingly pointless pain and suffering that it cannot plausibly be considered the creation of a such a God. Maybe there's some sort of cosmic intelligence behind the universe, but it is not that one. But of course, as we all know, those who believe in such a God have developed all sorts of ingenious ways of explaining away the evil - in terms of free-will, character-building, God's mysterious ways, and so on. We will look at some of the most popular explanations. and then look at a novel, and psychologically very effective, way of revealing just how hopeless these explanations are. Law has written several books including “Believing Bullshit” and “The Philosophy Gym”, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce and also runs Centre for Inquiry UK, a science and education-centric organisation. Tickets for the AHS AGM are still available and there are a few places left in the hostel for those who want them - BOOK NOW to ensure you don't miss out! Written by Michael Paynter

Comments

Ayisha said…

Thanks allot for help.

October 21, 2012 at 3:22 AM

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen

Aquinas on homosexuality

Thought I would try a bit of a draft out on the blog, for feedback. All comments gratefully received. No doubt I've got at least some details wrong re the Catholic Church's position... AQUINAS AND SEXUAL ETHICS Aquinas’s thinking remains hugely influential within the Catholic Church. In particular, his ideas concerning sexual ethics still heavily shape Church teaching. It is on these ideas that we focus here. In particular, I will look at Aquinas’s justification for morally condemning homosexual acts. When homosexuality is judged to be morally wrong, the justification offered is often that homosexuality is, in some sense, “unnatural”. Aquinas develops a sophisticated version of this sort of argument. The roots of the argument lie in thinking of Aristotle, whom Aquinas believes to be scientifically authoritative. Indeed, one of Aquinas’s over-arching aims was to show how Aristotle’s philosophical system is broadly compatible with Christian thought. I begin with a sketch of Arist

Why I won't be voting Labour at the next General Election, not even to 'keep the Tories out'.

I have always voted Labour, and have often been a member of the Party, campaigning and canvassing for them. For what it’s worth, here’s my feeling about voting Labour next General Election: 1. When the left vote Labour after they move rightwards, they are encouraged to just move further right, to the point where they are now probably right of where e.g. John Major’s Tory party was. And each time the Tories go further right still. At some point we have got to stop fuelling this toxic drift to the right by making the Labour Party realise that it’s going to start costing them votes. I can’t think of anything politically more important than halting this increasingly frightening rightward slide. So I am no longer voting Labour. 2. If a new socialist party starts up, it could easily hoover up many of the 200k former LP members who have left in disgust (I’d join), and perhaps also pick up union affiliations. They could become the second biggest party by membership quite quickly. Our voting

Stephen Law

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