I read old books and am confused about God. Philosophy Prof, @JMU_Phil_Rel (formerly @TCDPhilosophy). Latest book: Is There a God?, bit.ly/2QrnJxl

Joined February 2021
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The Edinburgh Critical History of Early Modern and Enlightenment Philosophy is available from JSTOR, including my chapter, "The Epistemology of Testimony: Locke and His Critics". (The critics are Leibniz, Mary Astell, and Peter Browne.) jstor.org/stable/10.3366/jj.…

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Kenny Pearce retweeted
AI: "It looks like you're reading a lengthy document. Would you like to read a summary—" ME:
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David Hume does not approve of this message. (It conflicts with his theory of the epistemology of testimony.)
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If Christian apologists were "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19), they'd listen to what atheists actually have to say before talking about what atheists 'have to' believe/do/etc. And they might learn something.
People have to worship something, and they have to believe in something bigger than themselves even if they claim to be atheists.
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The editors' introduction comes out swinging here, and I love it. British empiricism is not a thing (just an artifact of a 'hackneyed story').
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“A family from Mexico arrives this morning legally has as much right to the American Dream as the direct descents of the Founding Fathers.” Bob Dole accepting the Republican nomination for President in 1996.
Far right is often just a propaganda term for normal person
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Good 🧵. I actually think the best way to distinguish these traditions is through their canons. Which philosophers, ideas, & arguments do you assume familiarity with in your writing? If (e.g.) Quine & Lewis, you're analytic; if (e.g.) Heidegger & Sartre, you're continental.
People will sometimes object to the analytic-continental divide on the grounds that there’s no such thing as a unified continental philosophy, but what they often fail to notice is that exactly the same thing is true of analytic philosophy.🧵
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christianity is not a religion it is particles arranged religionwise
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After multiple rounds of comments from editor and referees, I got the final greenlight from Anglican and Episcopal History for my paper on that letter to Peter Browne. It's challenging crossing disciplinary boundaries! /1
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But it's been really interesting & helpful learning from the editor and referees about what 'real' historians (who hang out in history departments) expect, what they think are the key items of secondary literature on this topic/period, and so on. I appreciate their patience! /2
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It was rather disconcerting to write something that was so hyper-contextual that it couldn't even be published in a philosophy journal, and then be told, "this reads like it's written by an analytic philosopher, considering ideas in total abstraction from their context"! /END
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Since everyone is sharing their favourite American authors, who is the best American philosopher?
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"Why aren’t parents more concerned about what their children are hearing about the President’s behavior? Are moms and dads not embarrassed by what is occurring? What have we taught our boys about respecting women? What have our little girls learned about men?" James Dobson, 1998
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Encyclical Against the Machine
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This line 😭— “For an algorithm, an error is a flaw to be corrected; for a person, however, an error can be a catalyst for profound change.” — Pope Leo, #Magnificahumanitas
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I'm disappointed at the description of these things as "new forms of property". I've got nothing against copyright, patent, etc., per se but the language of 'intellectual property', 'piracy', etc., suggesting you can own an idea like you can own a car, is disastrous.
Today, among the goods that are universally intended for everyone, we must also include new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data. In a context where the wealth of nations depends increasingly on knowledge and technology, when these goods remain concentrated in the hands of a few, without adequate forms of sharing and access, a new imbalance is created that contradicts the universal destination of goods. In turn, it widens the gap between the included and the excluded, between those who can participate in the digital revolution and those who remain on the margins. #MagnificaHumanitas
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Not sure what this person means by 'ideological evidence' but, like, you do know that artists express ideas through their art, right? And those are often ideas about controversial social and political issues? Like, should we not be thinking about ideology when reading 1984?
The death of literary culture began when professors stopped treating novels as works of art and started treating them as ideological evidence.
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This is clearly true about Jer 1:5. That doesn't resolve any debates about Christianity & abortion/fetal personhood, but Jer 1:5 is a really bad prooftext, since God knew us before we were conceived, before our parents were conceived, etc.
Replying to @SarahHuckabee
Jer 1:5 is boasting about how he was uniquely called *before conception*. This is entirely about God's foreknowledge, not fetal personhood. According to Exod 21:22–25, a fetus was property & not a person. Luke 1 evinces the Aristotelian idea of fetal personhood at the quickening.
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Kenny Pearce retweeted
Always crazy to be reminded that until Descartes discovered clear and distinct ideas in 1641, all of our ideas was confused and obscure.
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"God is non-binary" -The Gospel Coalition (paraphrased)
Replying to @JosiahHawthorne
And look, if you think me saying this makes me some kind of liberal heretic -- okay, but I'm taking the friggin Gospel Coalition down with me, because they said the same exact thing. Any description of God's nature as male (like "Father") is anthropomorphic *metaphor*.
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As I've said before, "God is non-binary" is a provocative way of expressing bog standard orthodox, conservative, historical Christian theology. It's provocative in that it provokes us to think about what (if anything) God's lack of gender implies for our discourse around gender.
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