June 28, 2007
Introducing Guest-Blogger Lauren!
So, now that I've started blogging regularly again (at least for the last three days or so), I'm leaving town and going to be away from the computer for about five days. However, there is good news! This, I think, will be an excellent opportunity to hand over the reins to
my lovely fiance, Lauren. (I expect she will continue to blog occasionally after I come back, but I figured this was a good time to start.) Lauren is entering her senior year at Penn, majoring in physics, math, and philosophy. She's been instructed to stick roughly to the general subject areas ordinarily discussed on this blog...
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June 27, 2007
The Teleological Argument
While we are
talking a bit about intelligent design, I'd like to take the opportunity to post a little paper I wrote last semester on the teleological argument for the existence of God. The assignment was to give the strongest possible version of the teleological argument, discuss the most important objection, and whether the objection succeeds (and why). The catch: it all had to fit on one page. (This sort of thing is, by the way, a very useful exercise for budding philosophers; I recommend it.) So, without further ado: Teleological arguments for the existence of a divine being attempt to show...
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June 26, 2007
Theological Implications and "Scientificness"
It is popularly believed that if a theory has theological implications, then the theory is somehow "unscientific." A
post (NOTE: MovableType won't let me link directly to this post because the URL contains an unescaped ' contrary to the HTTP spec so the above link goes to the daily archive) at the
Florida Student Philosophy Blog challenges this claim. I think the article is unnecessarily long and involved, but I'm quite impressed with the insight. The argument is a reductio that works more or less like this...
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June 25, 2007
Detecting Java WebStart on Internet Explorer
So, I haven't posted very much recently, not for any particularly important reason, but simply because I've been doing other things with my free time. The next few days I have very little to do, however (I'm on vacation back in Washington state), and so I'm hoping to get a few things posted that I've been meaning to post. The first of these is a little off the usual topic of this blog, but I think it will be of interest if not to my usual readers, at least to those who find it on google. At work last week,...
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June 6, 2007
Discussions on Scripture and Tradition
Just a couple quick links: John Fraiser of
Chaos and Old Night discusses the attitude Evangelical Protestants ought to take to Church tradition in his post,
Sifting Through Church Tradition. Fraiser argues that we need to recognize the influence tradition has on us, and we ought not to try to escape from that influence, but, at the same time, we need to recognize that it is Scriputre and not tradition which is authoritative. I mostly agree with what Fraiser said...
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June 5, 2007
RIAA Case Against Tanya Andersen Dismissed With Prejudice
Some time ago I reported on the case of
Tanya Andersen, the 41 year old disabled single mother who was wrongly sued by the RIAA for allegedly downloading Gansta Rap on Kazaa (actually, the RIAA alleged that the offender was her daughter, who was 7 at the time) and responded by counter-suing them for just about everything in the book (including, notably, racketeering, fraud, and electronic tresspass). Now
Recording Industry vs. The People is
reporting that the RIAA has agreed that the case be dismissed with prejudice. This means that the RIAA admits Andersen's innocence...
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The ACLU Has Selective Hearing
Opinion Journal has a
great editorial criticizing the recent inaction of the ACLU in defending unpopular speech by conservatives. (HT:
Jeff the Baptist.) It wasn't that long ago that the ACLU was defending the right of the Aryan Nations to march in north Idaho. It seems that if you are a nutcase who thinks homosexuals should be burned at the stake, the ACLU thinks you have a right to your opinion, but if you thinks homosexual behavior is immoral it doesn't. It does seem to me to be true that the ACLU has been moving in a more and more partisan leftist direction...
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