How I’d Answer the 2020 PhilPapers Survey
After reviewing the new 2020 PhilPapers Survey, I can say none of my views have changed; while philosophy as a field has slowly crept more toward my views than not (see my previous article, The New 2020 PhilPapers Survey, which also covers my thoughts on some of the...Another Failed Thought Experiment: Nozick’s Experience Machine and How It Exemplifies What Bad Philosophy Looks Like
I will be answering in my next article the new questions posed in the 2020 iteration of the PhilPapers survey (a new development I just wrote about). But one of those new questions requires a separate article on its own: the one written, “Experience machine...A Hidden Fallacy in the Fine Tuning Argument
One of the most popular and persuasive arguments for theism is the so-called Fine-Tuning Argument. But there is a singular fallacy in it that I think usually gets overlooked. There are of course actually many fallacies in it, but those have been well-explored (hence...The Blondé-Jansen Argument from Consciousness
I’ve been asked to assess a bizarre argument for God published recently in Metaphysica (“Proving God without Dualism: Improving the Swinburne-Moreland Argument from Consciousness,” by Ward Blondé and Ludger Jansen, March 2021). I have already rather...How Not to Live in Zardoz
So. You know. Zardoz. That dystopian 70s movie everyone hates because it’s so fucking weird. “It depicts,” as Wikipedia describes it, “a post apocalyptic world where barbarians worship a stone god called ‘Zardoz’ that grants them...Could Be a 38% Chance We Are the Only Civilization in the Known Universe
A new study that ran the Drake Equation with a proper sampling of uncertainty (something no one had done before, oddly) has found there is credibly a 38% chance humans are the only civilization in the entire known universe; and a 52% chance we are the only...The Argument from Specified Complexity against Supernaturalism
Creationists may have bitten their own head off with their idea of specified complexity. Because there is a case to be made that if specified complexity can exist, the supernatural cannot. The creationist William Dembski famously contrived the concept of...Eight Philosophical Questions We’ll Never Solve?
Years back George Dvorsky wrote a popular article at io9 titled “8 Great Philosophical Questions We’ll Never Solve.” It’s interesting because all eight are triggers for the same cognitive biases sustaining irrational theistic belief. Is it true...The God Impossible
Is the existence of God logically impossible? I used to be suspicious of arguments that attempted to prove that, because they were usually so lame, and easily rebutted (although some stick, depending on which “God” you are talking about: see my discussion...Get Dr. Carrier’s Latest!
About the Author
Richard Carrier is the author of many books and numerous articles online and in print. His avid readers span the world from Hong Kong to Poland. With a Ph.D. in ancient history from Columbia University, he specializes in the modern philosophy of naturalism and humanism, and the origins of Christianity and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, with particular expertise in ancient philosophy, science and technology. He is also a noted defender of scientific and moral realism, Bayesian reasoning, and historical methods.
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