Faith Interface

Patricia Churchland on Neuroscience & Morality

Brain Science Podcast Episode 81 marks the return of philosopher Patricia Churchland, who was first interviewed back in Episode 55. This conversation with BSP host Dr Ginger Campbell focuses on her latest book, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality. We discuss the historical background and contrast Churchland’s approach to that of Sam Harris in [...]

Recommended Reading: “Aping Mankind” (Raymond Tallis)

Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity   Author(s): Raymond Tallis   ISBN: 1844652726 ISBN-13: 9781844652723 Publication Date: 30 Jun 2011 Pages: 400 (234 x 156mm) Format: Hardback In a devastating critique Raymond Tallis exposes the exaggerated claims made for the ability of neuroscience and evolutionary theory to explain human consciousness, behaviour, culture and [...]

Pascal’s Wager – Betting on God

This week on The Philosopher’s Zone we’re wagering on God. Well, why not? What have we got to lose? If God doesn’t exist, we lose nothing; if he does, we gain everything. This is the famous argument known as ‘Pascal’s wager’ after the great seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. This week, we examine the wager [...]

What is Faith? – Dr Glenn Peoples

This great podcast discussion on the nature of religious faith by Kiwi philosopher Glenn Peoples. This episode asks the question: “What is Faith”? Is it, as some maintain, just believing things for no good reason? When Christian thinkers over the years have spoken of having faith, what have they been talking about? Listen and find [...]

Between Dawkins & God

When Dawkin’s claims, in a clearly unqualified way, that ‘religion is harmful’, this assumes we have identified what is and is not a religion. It assumes we can know when religion is a cause, and when an effect of social phenomena. It takes as read that, with minimal dialogue with religious believers, we are in [...]

Intuition & Reason

Whatever its stigma, “intuition” is a term that we simply cannot do without, because it denotes the most basic constituent of our faculty of understanding. While this is true in matters of ethics, it is no less true in science. When we can break our knowledge of a thing down no further, the irreducible leap [...]

Did My Neurons Make Me Do It – Prof Nancey Murphy

In August 2011, Prof Nancey Murphy undertook a speaking tour of eastern Australia on the subject of her book Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will. I was fortunate enough to attend her lecture in Brisbane, Queensland, delivered on Wednesday 27th August, 2011. Nancey Murphy [...]

William Lane Craig, Richard Dawkins & The Empty Chair

Before the Beginning

Our understanding of creation relies on the validity of the laws of physics, particularly quantum uncertainty. But that implies that the laws of physics were somehow encoded into the fabric of our universe before it existed. How can physical laws exist outside of space and time and without cause of their own? Or, to put [...]

Scientific Faith – Dr Simon Kolstoe

Following is a letter from Dr Simon Kolstoe recently published in the magazine Philosophy Now (July/Aug 2011):   Scientific Faith Dear Editor: As a mere biochemist, I am often amazed, enlightened and humbled by the clear thinking and ruthless logic demonstrated by many authors in your excellent magazine. However despite this excellence, I’ve noticed a [...]