Just-released video on Humanism from the BHA.
On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
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Regards, Paul.
I also wonder why atheists feel the need to defend their atheism and attack, or in some way, try to demote theism. I do not see the reverse happening, except by a few silly American fanatics.
However I do fear that the comments on Humanist morality are a tad oversimplistic. In part this is for reasons expressed in the website www.investigatingatheism.info. I would like to point out immediately that I have atheist friends whom I care for very dearly and whose friendship I value, but they are not broadly hostile to religion or to religious modes of thinking. While I recognize that not all Humanists are utilitarians, I do fear that particular ethical code can very easily degenearate into a bullies charter, which makes all the more sinister the apparent desire among some atheist thinkers to airbrush away some of the moral complications that arise from an atheistic worldview. Buddhism (I think correctly) highlights the illusion of the autonomous ‘self’ whereas Christianity declares that the last shall be first. I see no Humanist equivalent, and that is for me why faith remains philosophically the least bad option. Dogmatism is the problem, not faith per se.
As a footnote, Richard Dawkins is absolutely wrong in equating science with poetry. Science uses words (however beautifully expressed)to convey facts, whereas poetry recognizes the limitations of both facts and words. Richard explains the night sky. The poet allows his neighbour to observe the night sky and to derive his own conclusions whether scientific or mythological.
Put another way, on Wednesday I saw Diamanda Galas in concert. Only one of her songs was in English, but even without understanding, the passion was apparent. That, not Dawkins, is the spirit of poetry.