67 votes
Accepted

Is the Skeptic's Prayer a valid scientific experiment?

This must be one of the grossest attempts at manipulating one's readership I have ever seen. The proposed "experiment" can never fail because the authors carefully planted 3 escape routes ...
armand's user avatar
  • 6,279
43 votes

Is Christianity testable?

Is John Lennox's defense of the testability of Christianity sound? No. It's true that Christianity as a religion contains some testable claims, but the implication – that therefore Christianity is ...
Dennis Hackethal's user avatar
34 votes

Is it defensible to claim that religion is a personal relationship with God and therefore contains no claims?

This is a striking example of a question that boils down to the ambiguous meaning of a word. Yes, if you mean religion in the sense intended by your aunt, you can say it need not involve any other ...
Marco Ocram's user avatar
  • 20.6k
33 votes
Accepted

Is Christianity testable?

TL;DR Testable claims are testable, untestable claims are not testable, and it's easy to confuse the two when they appear to be one package. People who study comparative religion tend to distinguish ...
Pseudonym's user avatar
  • 564
28 votes

Is Christianity testable?

We have to start from the neutral observation that while Lennox is deliberately using scientific terminology, and explicitly placing it in a scientific context, he is NOT using the term in the same ...
Chris Sunami's user avatar
  • 29.7k
20 votes

Can God's existence be established through reason and publicly accessible evidence?

My knowledge of the subject is insufficiently compendious to allow me to give an authoritative answer to your question, but I assume the answer is no, since were it possible to prove the existence of ...
Marco Ocram's user avatar
  • 20.6k
18 votes

Does it matter if certain professions have a lower rate of theism, and if so, why does it matter?

What reason is there to assume that a more intelligent or better educated person is more likely to have a correct opinion about a disagreement that cannot be settled rationally or by evidence? From ...
David Gudeman's user avatar
17 votes

Is the Skeptic's Prayer a valid scientific experiment?

It is a test of whether you can be talked into religious belief. In that respect it is rather a pointless test, since billions of people all over the world are ample proof that it is possible to be ...
Marco Ocram's user avatar
  • 20.6k
15 votes

Should I trust my own thoughts when studying philosophy?

No infinite is less than the other There are actually a wild variety of infinities. See eg Strange but True: Infinity Comes in Different Sizes for an introduction. For a more in-depth picture of ...
CriglCragl's user avatar
  • 21.4k
15 votes
Accepted

How do adherents to Plantinga's "free-will defense" against the problem of evil explain that God is free and immune to moral evil at the same time?

The Free Will Defense against the Problem of Evil is relatively unique compared to the more common responses. Most responses fall into the general category of "God does not have omnibenevolence&...
Dcleve's user avatar
  • 13.2k
14 votes
Accepted

Is Romans 1:19-20 philosophically sound?

St Paul is referring to pagans who recognized God through natural theology, not to anybody indiscriminately, even if knowing God through natural theology is theoretically possible for anyone with ...
Mutoh's user avatar
  • 646
14 votes

Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?

It is the nature of the beast. By definition. PHILOSOPHY = the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. Philosophy is ...
Alistair Riddoch's user avatar
12 votes

Should I trust my own thoughts when studying philosophy?

Intuition Is Important in Philosophy However, I am scared to trust my own thoughts lest my ideas are erroneous. Well, coming from a place of fear is a bit irrational since the stakes don't seem to ...
J D's user avatar
  • 25.8k
12 votes

I am confused regarding my beliefs

I disagree with your self-assessment. You seem to have a clear idea of what you believe. You believe in "god". You think that there is some great power in the universe (or of the universe)...
James K's user avatar
  • 414
12 votes

Is the Skeptic's Prayer a valid scientific experiment?

No, it is not a scientific experiment, because there is no objective way to determine the outcome. First, by refusing to set a time limit, the proposal protects itself against falsification; the "...
causative's user avatar
  • 12.4k
11 votes
Accepted

Why should I seek to determine the ultimate nature of reality (i.e. whether God exists or not)?

Why should I seek to determine the ultimate nature of reality (i.e. whether God exists or not)? In effect, you are looking for a justification for doing philosophy which you believe is necessary ...
J D's user avatar
  • 25.8k
11 votes

Is Christianity testable?

Well, he's playing with polysemy, but what he really says is that it's testable in the sense of someone adopting it may have beneficial results. Of course there's the issue what the control group is ...
the gods from engineering's user avatar
11 votes

Is Christianity testable?

Not really. Firstly you need to be clear what you mean by testing Christianity. It's a bit like testing a person- there are hundreds of different attributes, some of which are testable and some are ...
Marco Ocram's user avatar
  • 20.6k
10 votes

Can God's existence be established through reason and publicly accessible evidence?

You would need observations that can be explained by the existence of god, and that have no reasonable explanation if god does not exist. I don’t know of any such observations. And then there is the ...
gnasher729's user avatar
  • 5,505
9 votes

Should I trust my own thoughts when studying philosophy?

The irony of your question is that you ultimately decide who or what you trust. If you don't trust your thoughts, then you trust your thought that your (other) thoughts aren't trustworthy. If you ...
CJ Dennis's user avatar
  • 289
9 votes

Is Romans 1:19-20 philosophically sound?

Aside from a lack of philosophical argument in the verse you posted (which I’m sure someone else will answer), there is actually a philosophical debate about how God is hidden, rather than being “...
notwithstanding's user avatar
9 votes

Is it defensible to claim that religion is a personal relationship with God and therefore contains no claims?

No, it is not defensible Religion, according to her, is the personal relationship between God and a believer. If so, then according to her... Hinduism it not a religion Buddhism is not a religion ...
MichaelK's user avatar
  • 5,145
9 votes

I am confused regarding my beliefs

I can share my experience with you, in the hope that it might help you calibrate your views. I was born and raised in a Catholic community, attending schools that were staffed by priests and nuns, and ...
Marco Ocram's user avatar
  • 20.6k
9 votes

Does the Problem of Evil address God's existence or his character?

There are infinitely many conceivable gods, with infinitely many conceivable sets of traits. There may, for example, be a god of dessert, who interacts with reality purely to make dessert tasty, and ...
NotThatGuy's user avatar
  • 8,680
9 votes

Can religious, mystical, or spiritual experiences reveal truth?

Can religious, mystical, or spiritual experiences reveal truth? As @ScottRowe mentioned, any experience has the potential to reveal truth. So technically, the answer is yes. However, mysticism and ...
Idiosyncratic Soul's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

Can religious, mystical, or spiritual experiences reveal truth?

Short Answer A key point to realize in thinking thru your question, is that all empiricism is first person, and subjective. Science tries to harden its data as much as it can, by trying to cross ...
Dcleve's user avatar
  • 13.2k
7 votes

How do adherents to Plantinga's "free-will defense" against the problem of evil explain that God is free and immune to moral evil at the same time?

One could fairly trivially say that being capable of evil (but not committing evil) is compatible with the definition of omnibenevolence. Capable of evil or does evil? However, there is a stronger ...
NotThatGuy's user avatar
  • 8,680
7 votes

Why should I seek to determine the ultimate nature of reality (i.e. whether God exists or not)?

I find it interesting that you ask: Why should I seek to determine the ultimate nature of reality (i.e. whether God exists or not)? You seem to be equating "the ultimate nature of reality" ...
CJ Dennis's user avatar
  • 289
7 votes

Is Christianity testable?

From the short video by John Lennox I understand that he proclaims Christianity to be an evidence based religion. He repeats two basic statements of Christianity: Jesus is the son of God, Jesus is ...
Jo Wehler's user avatar
  • 30.5k

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