Real Atheology

Next month, I will be participating in a debate on the existence of God with Christian Apologist and debater Eric Hernandez (http://www.erichernandezministries.com).

In this episode, Real Atheology co-host Ben Watkins takes us on a tour through parts one and two of Hume's controversial essay 'Of Miracles'. Ben begins by providing context that serves to undercut some popular but ultimately uncharitable readings of Hume's central thesis. With the infamous argument clarified, other common objections are also explored.

Perhaps the most common response to the problem of evil is an appeal to the goodness of free will. Free will, it is argued, is so good that it justifies God's policy of non-intervention in cases where evil is the result of the free actions of moral agents. in his 2019 article published in The Heythrop Journal titled The Moral Problem with the Free Will Defense Against the Problem of Evil, Dr. Andrew Pavelich argues that there exists a deep disconnect between the theist's appraisal of free will's value and the role it plays in our everyday moral judgements. In Justin's interview with Dr. Pavelich, they discuss the ideas in that paper.

In the second part of Ryan's interview with Dr. Kenny Pearce, they discuss some of the issues surrounding the debate between Protestantism and Catholicism. In the second half the discussion turns to the issue of apologetics and whether there exists a clean distinction between it and philosophy of religion.

In this first part of Ryan Downie’s interview with Dr. Kenny Pearce, strategies for productive dialogue with those who hold opposing views are discussed.  The conversation then turns to discussing the value of historical approaches to philosophy. Finally, they discuss Leibniz contributions to philosophy of religion and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to cosmological arguments.

In this, the second half of Justin's interview with Dr. Dustin Crummett, they discuss an early paper of his in which he expands on an objection to the argument from divine hiddenness. The objection, known as the responsibility objection, claims that one reason God might have to keep belief from non-resistant persons is the good of the responsibility on the part of some in helping others learn truths of and about God. We also touch on his recent work on the argument from psychophysical harmony.

In this episode, Justin Schieber interviews philosopher Dr. Dustin Crummett (dustincrummett.com, https://www.youtube.com/@dustin.crummett, @Dustin_Crummett). Dr. Crummett received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2018, and specializes in social and political philosophy, ethics, and philosophy of religion. In this first of two episodes, we discuss Dr. Crummett's fascinating work relating to the problem of evil.

In this episode, returning host Justin Schieber interviews Dr. Michael Hemmingsen on his 2020 paper titled Soul-Making and Social Progress which was published in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. John Hick's Soul-Making theodicy, according to which suffering exists to provide opportunities to develop our moral virtue, is a popular response to the problem of evil. In his paper, Dr. Hemmingsen argues that advocates of John Hick's Soul-Making theodicy are thereby committed to opposing social progress.

We sit down with leading analytic philosopher of religion Prof. Josh Rasmussen to discuss Leibnizian cosmological arguments. We also bring on a special guest, Logos, to facilitate a dialogue with Prof. Rasmussen as we all journey together to explore the very cutting edge of this important debate. This dialogue pushes the dialectic forward in ways that can benefit both theists and atheists.

You can follow Prof. Josh Rasmussen's work at:

https://joshualrasmussen.com/

Be sure to check out Prof. Rasmussen's magisterial work Necessary Existence:

https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198746898.001.0001/oso-9780198746898

You can find Logos's work on his blog, which provides some context for the discussion. See his posts on Leibnizian cosmological arguments below.

Part I:

https://logosreviews.wixsite.com/theist-reviews-apolo/post/thoughts-on-the-leibnizian-cosmological-argument-part-1

Part II:

https://logosreviews.wixsite.com/theist-reviews-apolo/post/my-thoughts-on-the-leibnizian-cosmological-argument-part-2

In this episode, we critically review our co-host Ben Watkins's debate against Trent Horn of Catholic Answers at Capturing Christianity's conference CCv1. We are joined by esteemed guests Felipe Leon and Joe Schmid. This wide-ranging discussion covers such topics as intrinsic value, classical versus personalist models of God, the argument from motion, existential inertia, and the privation theory of evil.  

You can find Felipe Leon's work via the links below: 

http://exapologist.blogspot.com

https://elcamino.academia.edu/FelipeLeon 

You can find Joe Schmid's work here: https://linktr.ee/majestyofreason