Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

I'm fascinated with Alvin Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, and the dialogues that it has created. Some links to some of the pieces that I like:

Plantinga's Argument (Unpublished)

Wikipedia Page on EAAN

William Alston's Critique of the Argument (from Naturalism Defeated?)

There was a debate in February between Plantinga and Dennett, unfortunately it seems from what I have read of it that Dennett was more interested in stereotype than real dialogue. There is audio of the debate available but what I've heard has been pretty poor quality.

More coming as I come across new articles.

The Great Decline

"Jonathan Edwards is sometimes criticized for having too dim a view of human nature, but it may be helpful to be reminded that his grandmother was an incorrigible profligate, his great-aunt committed infanticide, and his great-uncle was an ax-murderer."

-George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life

New Tillich Companion

I saw the new Tillich book in the campus bookstore and really like the cover design. Not sure what painting that is from though.

I saw that the new NT Wright book, Justification, is out also. Horrible cover but I can't wait to read it.

The Devil Reads Derrida

Some of James K.A. Smith's popular pieces have been compounded into his new book, The Devil Reads Derrida, available in early May.

From the editor site:

Smith’s work as a Christian public intellectual brings theological wisdom into the service of lived discipleship. Whether grappling with the Wild at Heart phenomenon or the challenges of secularization, dealing with sex or consumerism, or commenting on The Devil Wears Prada or American Beauty, Smith tackles each issue with clarity and insight, with scholarly rigor — but always with an eye to Christian discipleship and the life of the church.

More info can be found here.

Lessing

This is german philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He was a prominent philosopher of the 18th century, as well as art critic and dramatist. Kierkeegard spent much time in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript dealing with Lessing's thoughts on epistemological leaps to faith.

Judging from his picture, Lessing also had an almost perfectly symmetrical triangular head, which unfortunately was never discussed in Kierkegaard's work.

I'm about halfway through with ...Postscript, and finding great freedom in Kierkegaard's subjective Christianity. I'm also wondering if there's any sort of hard connection from S.K. to reformed epistemology and other postfoundational ideas of rationality.

new thoughts:

"Christianity does not lend itself to objective observation, precisely because it proposes to intensify subjectivity to the utmost; and when the subject has thus put himself in the right attitude, he cannot attach his eternal happiness to speculative philosophy." -S.K.

and also...

Belief in God is properly basic.

Such a joy to read and know!!

Ben McDonald

This is the Ben McDonald 1990 Score Rookie Card. When I was young I absolutely loved collecting and trading baseball cards. This one was one of my favorites. I loved it not because I had any particular affinity to Ben McDonald, or because he played for the Orioles, but because I wanted a necklace like his really, really badly. I showed this card to my mom that winter so that she would have a visual image of my Christmas list.

I ended up getting a necklace, sort of like this, a little less pricy I'm sure. I loved that necklace and wore it all the time. I'm not sure what happened it to it. I guess I eventually moved on to beaded necklaces, which were made with tiny beads and fishing wire. They were all the rage in 5th grade.

Merry Christmas!

Books

I've really enjoyed the recent post about intuition and knowledge over at Scot McKnight's blog (written by one of his guest bloggers), and the discussion that followed in the comments has been really good also. Good talk about God-of-the-gaps theology (as well as what seems to be Darwin-of-the-gaps thinking by some commenters).

I finally started reading Phyllis Tickle's The Great Emergence. I haven't gotten very far in the book yet, but chapter two on the three strands of society - spiritual, corporeal, and moral - is worth the price by itself.

I want to start a discussion in the next week or so about some slight differences I noticed between NT Wright's Surprised By Hope and Rob Bell's Jesus Wants to Save Christians. In short, the two seem to have different reasonings about why we as Christians should care about the world. Wright uses an illustration of a signpost throughout his book, where Christians are supposed to be the signpost to what is coming when God recreates the physical world. Bell, on the other hand, writes about us making this world into a better place here and now. I think both men obviously want the same thing, but they same to have different reasonings. In Wright's book, he even argues that this world is not getting better (i.e. evolutionary progress) or worse (i.e. some fundamentalist thinking). But since Anna has my copy of Bell's book, I can't get too deep into it right now.

Oh, and Maroon 5 apparently just put out a remix album. Now I am by no means a maroon 5 fan, however I am a big proponent of remix albums and have been a little pissy for two straight years that I can't find my Bloc Party remix album. I listened to some of it on iTunes a little while ago and I like what I've heard. Of course, that would mean having a Maroon 5 album in my library, so I'm in a bit of a quandry.