Keith Parsons's Blog, page 59

Study on Religious Belief Systems of Persons with High Functioning Autism

Catherine Caldwell-Harris and Patrick McNamara have published a very intriguing study in the cognitive science of religion entitled, "Religious Belief Systems of Persons with High Functioning Autism." Here is the abstract:


The cognitive science of religion is a new field which explains religious belief as emerging from normal cognitive processes such as inferring others' mental states, agency

Further Evidence of the Lack of Civil Discourse: This Time a Theistic Example

Apparently there's a new anti-atheist book out called The God Haters: Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Pagan Preachers, and Embattled Evolutionists Declare War on Christians by Don Boys. To say that this book is an example of "unfriendly theism" appears to be a massive understatement.

I always chuckle when a complete stranger tells me that I hate God, as if I could hate

Jerry Coyne on Goodness without God

Jerry Coyne recently wrote an op-ed in USA Today entitled, "As Atheists Know, You Can Be Good Without God." Christian philosopher Matt Flanagan wrote an excellent critique, not of Coyne's claim that nonbelievers can be good without God (which Flanagan grants), but of pretty much everything else Coyne wrote related to metaethics. I wanted to highlight a couple of areas where I especially agree

Interesting Story about Secular Student Alliance High School Group

LINK (HT: Glenn Branch)

Anthony Aguirre on the Multiverse Hypothesis

Anthony Aguirre is a physicist at UC Santa Cruz. He wrote a paper in 1995 on the multiverse hypothesis. Here is the paper's abstract:

The notion that there are many "universes" with different properties is one answer to the question of "why is the universe so hospitable to life?" This notion also naturally follows from current ideas in eternal inflation and string/M theory. But how do we test

More Defense of William Lane Craig

Wow, my post defending William Lane Craig has generated a lot of feedback. Given the interest in that topic, I thought it would be valuable to go through in detail an example of the sort of unfair attack I've seen a few atheists heap on Dr. Craig. Over at the Rational Response Squad forums, I discovered this 2010 post by "HisWilliness" (HW), where the author comments on Craig's debate with Shelly

Justin Barrett's "Hyperactive Agency Detection Device" (HADD)

Another item for the "not new, but new for me" category. Justin Barrett is a cognitive scientist of religion and the author of Why Would Anyone Believe in God? In that book, Barrett advances an intriguing explanatory hypothesis for why most people believe in God: the Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD) hypothesis.

I have to admit that, when I first heard about HADD, I considered it to be

The Implausibility of Appealing to the Many-Worlds Hypothesis to Defeat the Fine-Tuning Argument

I know what I am about to write will be controversial among atheists--one of them may (?) be a certain professional physicist who writes regularly for The Secular Outpost--but I have never agreed with the idea of appealing to the hypothesis of multiple universes ("multiverse") as an objection to the fine-tuning argument for God's existence. Philosopher Bradley Monton is much more knowledgeable

Monton on "Design Inferences in an Infinite Universe"

Yet another one for the "not new, but new for me" category. Philosopher Bradley Monton has written an extremely intriguing essay on design inferences in an infinite universe. Here is the abstract:


This paper addresses two main questions. First, how does one determine that something has the features it does as a result of design, as opposed to for example chance? Second, how are inferences to

Schellenberg's Review of The Cambridge Companion to Atheism

J.L. Schellenberg is arguably one of the leading philosophers of religion in the world and, among other things, the philosopher who formulated the argument from divine hiddenness for atheism. Schellenberg reviewed The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (ed. Michael Martin) in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Here is the conclusion of Schellenberg's review:
I myself think that a good case for