Real Atheology

Today I interview Dr. Scott Davison. Dr. Davison is professor of philosophy at Morehead State University where he specializes in Metaphysics, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion. Dr. Davison and I connected back in May of last year at a conference here in Grand rapids - a science and religion dialogue for which he was the keynote speaker. The presentation was on his recently released a book titled Petitionary Prayer; a Philosophical Investigation. I really enjoyed his analysis and had to have him on the show.

In this episode, Ben Watkins sits down with philosopher Dr. Erik Wielenberg in Raleigh, NC immediately after his debate with philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig at NC state University. The debate, held on February 23rd, 2018, was on the question of what better explains objective moral values and duties. Wielenberg defended a form of godless normative realism while Craig defended a modified divine command theory. The discussion surveys the arguments and responses used in the debate as well as a few other topics in philosophy of religion. 

Skeptical Theism is a philosophical position about our ability to make meaningful inferences about what God, if such a being exists, is likely to create or allow. In this episode, Ben and Justin discuss one particular version of Skeptical Theism and the implications it has on arguments from evil and a few other issues as well.

Rather than a live debate, what you are about to hear is an audio performance of an already written debate that’s been going on behind the scenes for the last month or so in the form of a series of essays written in reply to each other. The debate was on the problem of evil and it was between Justin Schieber and Cameron Bertuzzi. The debate clocks in at about an hour.

In this episode Ben Watkins interviews philosopher Dr. Paul Moser. Dr. Moser is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. Professor Moser has published over 80 articles and authored many books including The Elusive God and The Evidence for God; Religious Knowledge Reexamined. Professor Moser’s research interests include epistemology, metaphilosophy, and the philosophy of religion. The interview touches on issues of religious epistemology, the hiddenness of God, and even natural theology.

A few weeks back I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Dr. Quentin Smith. We sat down not far from the Western Michigan University Campus where he was professor of philosophy from 1993 until he retired in 2015. Dr. Smith received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Antioch College and his PhD in philosophy from Boston College. He has written and published over 140 articles and has written and co-written several books including one with William Lane Craig titled Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology. While brief, the interview covers a wide variety of subjects from Smith’s 1986 book on The Felt Meanings of the World to his contributions to the problem of evil focusing on Evil Natural Laws as well as his thoughts on some contemporary arguments for God.

For this episode, we interview Dr. Felipe Leon on the metaphysical possibility of creation ex nihilo - or creation ‘out of nothing’. This is an indispensable metaphysical doctrine to classical theists. Dr. Felipe Leon is professor of philosophy at El Camino College in Torrance, CA. He received his M.A and Ph.D at University of California Riverside, and his current research interests are in philosophy of religion and modal epistemology. Recently, Dr. Leon co-edited and contributed to a collection along with Bob Fischer entitled Modal Epistemology After Rationalism. Among other things, the collection indicates the recent trend in modal epistemology to seek the ground of our modal knowledge in empirical sources, such as observation and observation-sensitive theory. Felipe also runs the ex-apologist philosophy of religion blog which has a wealth of fantastic content that listeners to this podcast will no doubt enjoy.

For this episode, Ben Watkins and Justin Schieber interview Counter Apologist on the moral argument. The moral argument is an argument about moral ontology and includes a premise which states, if God exists, objective moral values and duties do not exist. We discuss various strategies for interacting with this argument.

Youtuber Ozymandias Ramses joins Justin Schieber and Ben Watkins to discuss competing contemporary definitions of atheism. Agnosticism and the burden of proof or justification are also discussed.

For this episode of Real Atheology, Justin Schieber and Ben Watkins interview philosopher Wes Morriston. Dr. Morriston earned his PhD in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1972 and was a professor of philosophy at University of Colorado, Boulder from 1972-2014 when he retired as Emeritus Professor of Philosophy. Prof Morriston specialized in philosophy of religion. In the interview we discuss a variety of topics including a supposed tension that exists between a belief in what is often assumed to be the great value of free will on the one hand and the belief in God’s essential goodness on the other. We also discuss the moral argument - at least the form advocated by Christian philosopher William Lane Craig. We want to again thank Professor Morriston for the fantastic discussion.