The Nye-Ham debate is emblematic of the broader relationship between science and religion. These two fields of discourse are generally perceived as being both fully disjunct and largely in conflict with one another. Certainly, science and religion do come into conflict—the Young Earth creationist claim and the scientific consensus claim about the age of the Earth cannot both be correct—but the relationship between the two fields of discourse is generally more complex than that and, while conflicts do arise, I don’t see them as being necessary or intrinsic to either science or religion.
Tag: philosophy of religion
Against Antireligious Atheism
Let’s start, as usual, by defining our terms. I think, first of all, that many different kinds of people who hold to many different kinds of belief systems can potentially be atheists, so I try not to posit anything beyond the minimum I can get away with. So typically I understand atheist to mean nonbelief in any gods. The many potential meanings of the word “god” complicate the issue considerably, but ultimately the atheist will claim that they don’t believe that anything that could be called “God” or “a god” or “a goddess” or anything like that exists. This does not necessarily equate to an affirmative belief that such things do not exist, but is rather, at the minimum, the absence of an affirmative belief that they do exist.
What Is Religion?
Do American Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in the same god? Nominally, at least, the answer seems to be an obvious yes: I think Americans whose religion falls into the Abrahamic tradition in general identify their god as being the same god worshipped by other such Americans. But in practical terms, that may not be the case; even American Christians may functionally believe in a different god than other American Christians.
Foundations of Satanism: William James and Satanic Pantheism
This episode begins a three-episode series that will explore the foundations of Satanic religion, as I understand it. Each episode will concentrate on a different aspect of Satanism and will be written in a different style. This one will be somewhat like my typical essays, especially those that focus most closely on Satanism and philosophy of religion, and here I’ll be exploring the religious philosophy of one of my most significant influences, the American philosopher William James.
Satanism and the Philosophy of Education
Odd that this has never come up in the year now, almost, that I’ve been doing this. No one’s ever asked me what I do for a living, what my day job is. I’m a teacher, primarily working as a private tutor for gifted children and those with learning disabilities. I have some other gigs as well, but these days, I primarily think of myself, at least in terms of what I consider to be my “job,” as a teacher. More generally, I think of myself as a scholar and a philosopher and critic of religion, but my job as an educator is very important to me and, I think, an integral part of my Satanic philosophy.