Skip to main content

Swinburne, Philipse and myself at the CFI event last week



Comments

sfarisbradistan said…
How was the event? I actually like Richard Swinburne. I think he's fair minded even though I disagree with much of his conclusions. He doesn't look very well. Is he okay?
Stephen Law said…
Great - video will be released shortly. Swinburne looked a bit thinner to me but very well. I also like Richard. You can have a decent and honest conversation with him without him taking offence, etc. I think he's a genuinely nice man.
You kind of have a "Rock me Amadeus" look in that photo!
St Badger said…
I was there..I was lucky to even find out that this was on as it wasn't overly publicised. Guess I'm lucky that I'm a Christian who likes to frequent the BHS web-site :)

I thought both the speakers did a grand job, it gave me and my wife lots to discuss on the train back home!
Stephen Law said…
That's my thoughtful face! Thanks for coming Dan. Where should I advertize in future?
St Badger said…
If you want get people like myself who are interested on debates of this nature especially for Theists in the UK the best place would be www.apologetics315.blogspot.com...word would spread quickly from there. Another one would be Justin Brierley from the Unbelievable Radio show I'm sure he'd always be happy to give anything like this a shout out.

I should be studying at Hythrop in September..would be great to chat sometime :)
Stephen Law said…
Thanks Dan - hope to see you there!
Paul R Syms said…
Stephen, I saw this and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for organizing. Two very small criticisms: Richard (I think) took a straw poll at the start, but I can't recall another poll at the end, before people had to leave for their trains, etc.. What would have been most interesting would have been to see if anyone was persuaded to shange their opinion as a result pf the debate. Second, and this applied to your Oxford evening (with Harris and Richard Dawkins) is that you need BIGGER venues! They are so popular ... apparently the latter sold out in 15 minutes!
Stephen Law said…
Bigger would be good but this one was the first time ever got more than 150 for an evening weekday. Be interested to see if we can repeat it for conspiracy theories coming next....
Anonymous said…
I would really love to know where I can find a video of this debate.

Popular posts from this blog

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...

The Evil God Challenge and the "classical" theist's response

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...