Bill Pratt | April 24, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt Clearly the answer must be “yes.” In fact, the apostle Paul teaches this very truth in the book of Romans. There are some moral truths that can be known without a person ever acknowledging God’s existence. In fact, the world would be a complete disaster if everyone had to agree on [...]
Bill Pratt | April 3, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt Picking up the argument from part 1, let’s recap. When we make moral judgments, we just take for granted that our judgments apply regardless of time period, place, or even species. Another way to say this is that our moral judgments transcend time, place, and species. If this is true, then it seems [...]
Bill Pratt | April 1, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt When we humans make moral judgments, when we call some activity morally good or bad, we think that our judgment is universal, that it transcends time, place, and even our own human species. Let me explain each one in turn. With regard to time, we humans believe that it is perfectly [...]
Bill Pratt | March 27, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt We live in an era where science and reason are highly valued, but at the same time many intellectuals doubt the existence of anything but matter and energy. Philosophers, such as Thomas Nagel, have pointed out the built-in contradiction of the worldview that says only physical matter exists, and that reason [...]
Bill Pratt | January 16, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt I know this seems like a ridiculous question to normal people, but this is actually a very live and contentious debate among the professors teaching your children at the university. So you need to pay attention to these debates, lest your college expenditures be flushed down the drain! The classical Christian [...]
Bill Pratt | January 11, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt If you believe a handful of famous physicists (e.g., Hawking, Mlodinow, and Smolin), the answer is yes. Multiverse theorists, like the three aforementioned physicists, posit a multiverse which contains numerous universes with different physical laws. According to Austin L. Hughes, in his article “The Folly of Scientism,” these theorists hold that [...]
Bill Pratt | November 16, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Actually the answer is neither, but we’ll get to that soon enough. Why ask this question in the first place? Because philosophy is a discipline that builds one layer upon another (just like many other disciplines), and since philosophy provides a foundation for all of the sciences, it is extremely important [...]
Bill Pratt | January 9, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1 of this series, we learned that there are two versions of the multiverse hypothesis, level 1 and level 2. The level 1 multiverse is non-controversial as it is basically an extension of our current universe in space. The level 2 multiverse, however, makes much grander claims and is fraught with [...]
Bill Pratt | September 12, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt OK, those of you who have never thought about Aristotle and don’t even know what the word metaphysics means are probably already yawning, but hang on for a minute. Briefly, why should you care about Aristotle? Because the medieval Christian theologians (Thomas Aquinas being the most brilliant example) built their conceptions [...]
Bill Pratt | June 22, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt This is a familiar theme for long-time readers of the blog. I am deeply interested in where the scientific method can shed light and where its light begins to fade. For mankind, to know everything is to know all that really exists. If you think of everything that exists as falling [...]
