Radically Happy

Category: Beliefs

  • DiaBlogue: SPOM, spom, Spom, SPoM

    Metric: The best theory is one which most elegantly explains all past results while enabling precise predictions for the widest range of future experimentsThis doesn’t mean it is impossible to question these assumptions, but it does mean that by doing so you are going outside “normal science” into a realm…

  • DiaBlogue: Of Anger, Hatred, and Love

    Dear Alan, In addition to the “obvious” confusions identified in my last post, your last post touched on another topic that has long puzzled me: I have, for instance, described universal utilitarianism (or at least my understanding of it) as being incomplete since it “does not reflect our intuitions about…

  • DiaBlogue: Obviously (not)

    [emphasis mine] My question was instead whether you agreed that we could derive something comparable to the MSSB starting from the deistic hypothesis; the last paragraph of your comment hints that you might, but I’d like to know for sure.Given all that, I would be happy to reformulate our first…

  • DiaBlogue: A Minimal Set of Shared Beliefs

    Dear Alan, On the whole, I was probably more relieved than surprised to discover that you responded to my bet with affirmation (given my past failures to accurately identify shared beliefs :-). For the most part, I am pleased that — for the first time since our Epistemology — we…

  • DiaBlogue: Where’s The Love?

    Dear Alan, Since my holiday truce failed to inspire a response, I hope you will forgive me for attempting something more provocative. 🙂 While this is mostly an (oblique) attempt to respond to your latest non-DiaBlogue post — and others like it — I hope it will also serve to…

  • DiaBlogue: You Bet!

    it might not be Christianity [as we know it] any more when you are done, but what results may be that thing that you are looking for, a still better way of livingSo, in the spirit of the holiday, I’d like to propose we lay down our arms and focus…

  • A reasoned conversation about Christianity and atheism

    Prompted by a discussion about the so-called “proof” that belief in God is an evolutionary accident, I engaged in a discussion on the FoRK mailing list about Christianity vs. atheism. While not nearly as coherent (or civil 🙂 as my DiaBlogue with Alan, I felt it was at least worth…

  • Five Empirical Tests of Theism

    One of the points I’ve been trying to make in my Reasoned Conversation is that my belief in God is a hypothesis that is supported by empirical evidence. My hypothesis isn’t perfect, and is constantly evolving, but I still find it to have superior explanatory power than the alternative “null…

  • DiaBlogue: Wanna Bet?

    However, it is justified — at least in the mind of the researcher — because he or she “feels” that this problem “ought” to be solvable, since it is “similar” in some way to a previously solved problem; even if they can’t formally justify it according to the rules of…

  • DiaBlogue: Sam Harris Deist? Eerie.

    Ironically, the position outlined by Sam Harris:But if there are psychophysical laws that underwrite human well-being?and why wouldn’t there be??then these laws are potentially discoverable. …Belief in a transcendent moral purpose for the universe is as well-justified and essential for social inquiry as belief in the transcendent mathematical nature of…

  • TriaBlogue

    They’re no Ebon Muse — so I’m not ready to inject them into my debate with Alan — but the similarity in name, topic, and approach is so striking I wanted to link to the Triabloguers here. They appear even more over-educated than I am, so I wouldn’t want to…

  • DiaBlogue: Ratioanalizing Virtue

    Once again, I am pleased that Alan agrees that we can treat Universal Utilitarianism (UU) as Metric, Not Imperial. That is, we both agree it is a useful Metric, vs a System of ethics as Ebon Muse would construe it. Alan ended with a challenge for me to “to tell…

  • Review: What Dr. Ernie Prabhakar Believes About God

    A catalog of creedal and apologetic posts about faith, truth, and Christianity. [Last updated 2007-01-10].

  • Explaining Jesus to a Twelve-Year Old

    One of the more delightful requests to emerge from my Reasoned Conversation on FoRK (about Christianity and atheism) was the challenge to explain Jesus in a manner that could be understood by an intelligent 12-year-old. I have perhaps taken that too literally by framing my response as a letter to…

  • DiaBlogue: Metric [vs] System?

    Dear Alan, I must say, I think we are dangerously close to actually making forward progress! Alas, I’ve often felt this way before, only to discover that it was merely a superficial agreement masking a deeper misunderstanding. 😦 I think part of the challenge is that we each have underlying…

  • DiaBlogue: Universal Utilitarianism

    I appreciated the necessity and relevance of his request for me to clarify my position, but given our recent failure to find (solid) common ground I wasn’t quite sure where to start.Fortunately, his reference to Daylight Atheism’s post on The Ineffable Carrot and the Infinite Stick (I love the title…

  • Praise the Source of Faith and Learning

    Francis, Collins , aka the Genomic Guitarist, led this song during the 2006 ASA Annual Meeting. I didn’t attend, but I was strruck by the lyrics as printed in the Newsletter, so I wanted to capture the lyrics and music here.

  • DiaBlogue: E-TOE, the Line of Argument

    In his exploration of The Ethical Universe, Alan clarified that he no longer thinks of (I) [belief in] Truth as “inherently good”, but what I might term ‘instrumentally good‘ in relation to (II)Love [for others] and [III] [personal] Happiness. I am pleased that he concurred with my analysis of the…

  • DiaBlogue: Good and True

    To help address that suspicion, let me ask Alan a few (hopefully simple) questions:a) Do you consider (I) a statement about objective reality, or of personal preference?To use our earlier terminology, is this (i) a “real” statement which is objectively true or false, or is it merely (ii) an “imaginary”…

  • DiaBlogue: The Ethical Trilemma

    Having finally Found: Two Goalposts, which I support and he denies: I. Ontological dependence on an omnipotent, benevolent Deity as the ultimate source of virtue and truth II. Epistemic dependence on received Scripture as a reliable indicator of divine will Alan and I can now turn our attention to pursuing…