If you are unfamiliar with Hamilton's "Aaron Burr, Sir," I highly recommend giving it a quick listen before proceeding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1CEolFz5do There is one line from this song that resonates in particular: "If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?"Hamilton the Musical Just take a moment to reflect upon this quote. For those of... Continue Reading →
A Defense of Theism in Modernity: A Longitudinal Review
By definition of agnosticism, I’m somewhat agnostic, and yet, I am a strong theist. The two can coincide because agnosticism is concerned with knowledge, and "theism" focuses on belief. Agnosticism describes God as unknowable, and through a means of natural knowledge, I agree in terms of knowing God fully, though one can come to partially... Continue Reading →
Understanding Omniscience and Free-Will
A popular atheistic argument is that omniscience and free-will are incompatible. First, I will define both as many religious adherents (particularly Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam) understand these attributes: Omniscience: the state of knowing everythingFree-will: the power to choose one's actions "The power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do... Continue Reading →
Belief is not Brainwashing
When I define belief, it is something that one chooses to profess as one's own despite knowledge or awareness of other conflicting forms of belief. It is a conscious choice.Brainwashing, on the other hand, does not allow for one to have knowledge or awareness of anything other than what is explicitly presented. Can certain beliefs... Continue Reading →
How can there be a God and Evil/Suffering in the World?
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a popular agnostic philosopher and religious skeptic. He argued, "If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, there could be no evil," which meant that he essentially believed that an all-powerful, all-knowing and genuinely-good God would not allow the evils that are quite apparent in our world today to exist. Though,... Continue Reading →
Which religion is the least “closed-minded?”
I don't mean "closed-minded" in a general sense, for anyone of any/no religion can be described as having an "open-mind." In fact, curiosity and our desire to research Truth are both products of human-nature. We're all innately open-minded, but we can be conditioned by our environment to close-off certain possibilities despite thousands of years of... Continue Reading →
“I see truth in all religions”
Very good. You should. The phrase, "I see truth in all religions" is in and of itself unproblematic. I am not going to negate the fact that multiple religions share commonalities and truths. Because, well, they do. If you hunt around on my webpage or merely peruse the rest of the Internet, there are dozens... Continue Reading →
Which religion is ‘true’?
If multiple weren't so convincing, containing so many similarities, we wouldn't even have this question. Of course, society would say that I'm biased because I adhere to a particular belief already, so to attempt to reduce the likelihood of skeptics not wanting to hear what I have to say, I'm not going to directly give... Continue Reading →
Born Good or evil?
Fun Side-note on the featured image: Aren't babies just adorable?! In all seriousness, though, wouldn't we all like to know whether we are truly good or truly fallen beings? Maybe some of us do. I want to provide a brief theological walk-through of the major monotheistic traditions' approaches toward "The Human Condition." What makes human... Continue Reading →
Jesus in Major World Religions
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism Each of these 5 major world religions acknowledge a man referred to as Jesus existed, yet he plays a very different role in each respective tradition. In fact, most historians and archeologists will argue that evidence exists from over 2,000 years ago that Jesus was far more than just... Continue Reading →