Naturalism As True By Definition

Jason Streitfeld weighs in on the question of naturalism or supernaturalism, treated by Sean Carroll here, John Pieret here, and Shane and me in these this post and then this one. Streitfeld’s post is excellent so read it in full. Scientists do not rely on any notion of the supernatural to formulate their conception of [...]

Can Scientists Infer About Naturalism And Its Limitations?

John Pieret is not thrilled with Sean Carroll’s foray into the philosophy of science and metaphysics from Thursday. Particularly, he is (rightly) critical of Carroll’s dismissal of major theories of scientific demarcation as mere “mottos” and his apparently unnuanced and uncritical preference for Occam’s Razor in all cases.  Only in the final paragraph does he [...]

Science And Supernatural Hypotheses, Present and Possible Future

Via PZ Myers, comes a long and recommendable argument by Sean Carroll on the philosophy of science and how scientific understanding of the world thus far precludes any room for miracles (thus making the religion and science incompatible).  Excerpted from the much longer article with interesting things on the philosophy of science which I recommend [...]

The Case For Naturalism (And A Great Take On The Practical Import Of Descartes)

Solid Video, the first ~5 minutes are a great little take on the practical uses of Cartesian reasoning and then the case is made for restricting our claims to naturalistic ones. Overall, he makes an interesting case against the word “atheism” and, more importantly, a crucial case against the misleading notion that atheism is a [...]

Against Faith and In Defense of Naturalism and Induction

It should not be necessary for understanding this post, but in case you’d like to catch up on the full debate with Camels With Hammer Reader/Debate Spar Extraordinaire Shane leading up to this post, here are the previous installments: Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellecuals 1 Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellectuals 2 Objections to [...]

How Faith Is Not Like Other (Revisable) Reflexive Assumptions

(It should not be necessary for understanding this post, but for the full backstory to this debate see my series on Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellectuals, parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 and my post “On Teleology and Intellectual Virtues and Vices”) Shane writes in reply to my post “On Teleology and Intellectual Virtues [...]

Taking The Unity of Truth Notion Seriously

Cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss on the incompatibility of God and science.  The whole piece is worth your time.  This succinct statement summing up the article, however, hits the nail on the head: My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel [...]