A Reply to Michael: Further Thoughts on the Issue of Supernatural Deception

In the comments section of a previous blog entry of mine, Cognitive Reliability vs. Supernatural Deception, Christian blogger Michael Russell has offered numerous points of reaction. His last two comments, dated 7 December, were so loaded with topical material that I decided to post my response to him in a new blog entry here on Incinerating Presuppositionalism.

Some Thoughts on the "Sensus Divinitatis"

In the comments section of my blog Cognitive Reliability vs. Supernatural Deception, a Christian blogger by the name of Michael Russell (whose blog Something to say has some interesting posts) challenged my view that Christianity’s supernaturalism undercuts any assumed cognitive reliability on the part of the believer given the possibility, implied by its supernaturalism, that malevolent spirits may be deceiving them undetectably.

Christianity's Psychological Price Tag

Alex Botten recently commented on my blog. He wrote:

I find it slightly disturbing that the Christians are complaining that they can't deal with anything other than bite sized points.

At a guess, their religion's absolute failure to account for knowledge causes them to run from any situation where they might learn something.

Christianity's Sanction of Evil

Prologue

Over the past two weeks or so, while I’ve been living temporarily in the seaside resort town of Cha’am, Thailand (since the part of Bangkok where I live has been flooded and unreachable), I’ve been party to several discussions with presuppositional apologist Sye Ten Bruggencate. Readers of my blog will remember my critique of Sye’s website where he’s published his version of a presuppositional argument for the existence of his version of the Christian god.

Well, we’ve butted heads again, and the results have been, shall I say, historic.

Cognitive Reliability vs. Supernatural Deception

Today we join presuppositional apologist Sye Ten Bruggencate in mid-session with the Goodness Over God crew, Ben Wallis and Michael, Long, on their recent podcast featuring both Sye and Dustin Segers, who also practices presuppositional apologetics (and has his own blog). The TAG team are at it again, battling non-believers and doing what they can to shut the mouths of atheist spoilsports.

A Reply to Dustin Segers’ Dismantled Blog Entry on Objectivism

Dustin Segers, who attempted to refute the primacy of existence in a podcast with Sye Ten Bruggencate and the folks at Fundamentally Flawed, also posted an entry on his blog restating and to some extent elaborating on the refutations he gave in that podcast. Unfortunately Segers has subsequently decided to remove his blog entry after I brought to his attention that he had made a fundamental error (namely confusing the principle of the secondary objectivity of consciousness with the primacy of existence). This was not what I had expected or even desired, for it is always good to have examples of failed critiques of Objectivism on the web to learn from.

Luckily I was able to save a copy of Segers’ post before he removed it from his blog. I have reposted it on my personal website here: Dustin Segers’ Failed Attempt to Refute the Primacy of Existence. My repost of Segers’ blog entry includes all the comments which I know were submitted to his blog, including his own final comment announcing his decision to take it down.

Has the Primacy of Existence Been Refuted?

Theists who are aware of Objectivism are right to be concerned with the devastating implications which the principle of the primacy of existence has for their religious worldview. So it should come as no surprise when Christian apologists try to find some way of destroying the primacy of existence.

Once such attempt was recently executed by Christian apologist Dustin Segers, who posts under the moniker “Dusman” on various blogs. Segers’ comments can be found in this episode of a podcast program called Fundamentally Flawed. In this blog I will examine Segers’ four-point attempt to refute the primacy of existence.

George H. Smith's "Atheism: The Case Against God" - Online - Free PDF

The full version of George H. Smith's book Atheism: The Case Against God has been converted to a PDF file and is available here.

A link to the file of Smith's book was posted by Smith himself in this forum.

I have also added a link to it from the main page of my blog under "Recommended Resources."

For those who have not read Smith's book, it's an enjoyable read. So take a look.

by Dawson Bethrick

Strange Bedfellows?

Paul Manata offers an interesting assessment of the “transcendental argument for God” (TAG).

Answering Nide's Questions about the Uniformity of Nature

A visitor to my blog named Nide who posts comments under the pseudonym “Hezekiah Ahaz” has asked a series of questions relating to one of my favorite topics, the uniformity of nature.

STB: One Year and Still Waiting…

It has been an entire year now since I posted my critique of Sye Ten Bruggencate’s argument for the existence of the Christian god.

And Sye has yet to interact with my criticisms.

Five Years and Still Waiting...

Five years ago, on August 11, 2006, Aaron Kinney over at Kill the Afterlife posted this blog entry in which he published a prayer request on my behalf.

Presuppositionalism vs. Objectivism: How Objectivism Prevails

In the final episode of his commentary on the exchange between presuppositionalist Sye Ten Bruggencate and atheist Justin Schieber, internet apologist Chris Bolt summarizes the presuppositionalist strategy as follows:

You demonstrate the impossibility of the contrary by an internal critique… This is where the real meat of the transcendental argument comes in… This is where we ask the unbeliever things like how do you account for logic, science, and morality in your worldview. The big three. And there are lots of other things of course that you might ask. This is where we demonstrate the inconsistencies in the unbeliever’s worldview. And when we do that, we are demonstrating the impossibility of the contrary. [8:48-9:20]

Did you get that?

Nide's Snide

A Christian who is apparently reluctant to identify his true name, has been active in the comments sections of my previous two blog entries, Considering Tony’s Offerings and A Proof that the Christian God Does Not Exist

A Proof that the Christian God Does Not Exist

Christians are continually challenging the non-believer to prove that their god does not exist, and like to heckle non-believers on the matter because they say one would need to be omniscient in order to know that there is no god hiding somewhere in the universe.

Considering Tony's Offerings

A visitor to my blog named Tony recently posted a somewhat lengthy comment on my previous blog. Although Tony made no attempt to defend Van Til’s “argument from the unity of knowledge (which is the topic of the blog to which he posted his comment), I’m grateful that he did submit his thoughts on my blog. I’m always happy when new presuppositionalists seek to challenge me. It makes for such great sport!

I have written a response to Tony below.

The Argument from the Unity of Knowledge

I am now settling into my new life in SE Asia. So far it has been as bountiful an adventure as one could hope. With the house back home rented out and all my financial obligations State-side met, I am free to assimilate myself into a new culture, lifestyle and experience.

Imagine There's a Heaven

I remember back when John Lennon’s song “Imagine” came out and reached wide popularity, how there was an outcry of protestation against it from the evangelical community. The song begins with the lyric, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” Evangelicals were outraged by this because we’re not supposed to do this – we’re not supposed to imagine that there is no heaven.

Incinerating Presuppositionalism: Year Six

Today is March 26, which means another anniversary here at Incinerating Presupposition has rolled around once again. The first posting on Incinerating Presuppositionalism was published on March 26, 2005, a whole six years ago. And though this past year has been relatively sluggish in terms of posting activity, I am alive and well, and the state of IP is strong.

On "Justifying" the "Inductive Principle"

In his debate with Eddie Tabash, presuppositional apologist Greg Bahnsen asked the following question:

Mr. Tabash, on what rational basis do you then, as an atheist, justify belief in the inductive principle?

Thoughts on Gallup’s Religious Wellbeing Polls

Christian apologist Rick Warden has posted numerous comments on my blog (see my blogs here and here), reaching for virtually any desperate means of attacking Objectivism that he can concoct on the spur of the moment. To his credit, Rick rightly recognizes that Objectivism poses a philosophical threat to theism, and his choice to dig in his heels to protect his god-belief from the very existence of other human beings who do not buy into the bible’s bull, has motivated him to deploy numerous deliberately distorting and, I dare say, underhanded tirades on my blog. His latest barrage of comments were posted in mid January on this blog, and I debated whether or not to respond yet again to someone who has proven to be quite unteachable on philosophical matters. Since I realize that some of my readers might benefit from points I have in response to Rick’s rants, and since I haven’t been posting much on my blog in recent months, I have decided to publish my reaction.

Does the Double Slit Experiment Refute the Primacy of Existence?

A visitor to my website sent me the following question:

I somehow came across your validation text of the primacy of existence, and found it very enlightening and interesting to read. However, it got me thinking of a quantum mechanics experiment I have heard about, the Double Slit Experiment. Have you heard of it? I have studied neither philosophy nor physics but am greatly interested in both, and my intuition told me that the double slit experiment contradicts the primacy of existence. Since you seem very adept at organising thoughts and arguing theories as these, I felt like asking you what you think of this matter.