Tarik D. LaCour is a Ph.D. student in philosophy and an M.S. student in psychology. He is a philosopher and cognitive scientist whose primary research interests are in the philosophy of psychology, cognitive science, and bioethics. He also writes about politics “from a conservative point of view,” and also on religion, from his perspective as … Continue reading CA93 Is Mormonism the Best Version of Christianity? — with Tarik D. LaCour →...
Apr 04, 2022•1 hr 48 min
Does Christianity bear the kind of fruit one might expect if it were true? Does naturalism or Christian theism better predict the moral fruits and lack thereof that we actually observe? Naturalists would expect Christianity to produce a mixed bag, like any other man-made institution. Christianity leads one to form loftier expectations. There’s much more … Continue reading CA92 The Meager Moral Fruits Argument →...
Mar 28, 2022•21 min
I’m joined by Scott Clifton (Theoretical Bullshit) to discuss free will skepticism, compatibilism, moral responsibility, revenge, and killing coyotes. Video version – Is free will an illusion? Scott’s channel Follow me @waldenpod and TBS @TheoreticalBS Consider supporting Counter Apologetics here or Walden Pod here linktr.ee/emersongreen
Mar 23, 2022•2 hr 42 min
For the believer who advances the argument from miracles, the question of why God won’t heal amputees can be a thorn in the side. If God is willing to perform healing miracles – miracles that should convince anyone – why hasn’t God restored the lost limbs of amputees? Consider supporting the show YouTube Follow me … Continue reading CA91 Why won’t God heal amputees? →
Feb 20, 2022•24 min
Original video on YouTube – From YEC to Atheist My Channel Twitter @waldenpod linktr.ee/emersongreen
Feb 15, 2022•2 hr 31 min
I argue that the notion of eternal conscious torment (ECT) leads to absurdities, and that theists can easily avoid these absurdities by abandoning ECT. For example, a believer in ECT must defend the following proposition: “A perfectly good, merciful, just, and loving God superintends the eternal conscious torment of human beings.” This proposition is incoherent … Continue reading CA90 Hell: Eternal Conscious Torment →...
Feb 08, 2022•16 min
Arguments from contingency are widely considered to be among the strongest offered in defense of God. The results of the 2020 PhilPapers Survey have cosmological arguments ranked as the strongest family of arguments for theism. So why don’t I spend more time worrying about cosmological and contingency arguments? Even those unfamiliar with cosmological arguments will … Continue reading CA89 Why I don’t spend more time on contingency arguments →...
Dec 18, 2021•14 min
Naturalists, according to David Papinau, author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on naturalism, urge “that reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’.” Naturalism “has no very precise meaning in contemporary philosophy” beyond this, along with an emphasis on science as a means to understand the natural world. Naturalism is the view that … Continue reading What is Naturalism? – Walden Pod →...
Dec 02, 2021•22 min
The Discovery Institute, an ID thinktank, has a list of “Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design.” On this list is an article authored by Michael Behe, alleging to prove the irreducible complexity of certain protein binding sites. However, his experiment demonstrated the exact opposite point as intended. He had to … Continue reading CA88 ID Theorist Accidentally Produces Evidence Against Intelligent Design →...
Nov 17, 2021•12 min
watch the video version here Support at patreon.com/counter or /waldenpod Follow on Twitter @waldenpod Transcript Linktree Answers in Reason – Ten Questions for Theists Braxton Hunter – Ten Questions for Atheists my responses to Braxton and here are links to a few of the arguments I mentioned in Question 7: Schellenberg’s argument from hiddenness Rowe’s … Continue reading 7 Questions for Christians →
Nov 09, 2021•6 min
We’ll be exploring what the discovery of evolution potentially means for religion. Is evolution evidence against theism? If so, why? Is it incompatible with Christianity, as some Christians maintain? What is the conceptual landscape vis-à-vis evolution and theism—as in, what is the range of potential options available to a religious believer when it comes to … Continue reading CA87 God & Evolution →
Nov 01, 2021•31 min
Human beings seem cosmically unimportant. Though certainly from God’s perspective, we are more important than stars, rocks, vast stretches of empty space and time, and other things that don’t seem to possess any value in and of themselves, the latter group seems to have been afforded the lion’s share of the cosmos. Human beings, presumably … Continue reading CA86 The Argument from Scale →
Oct 05, 2021•31 min
Today, I’m speaking with The Non-Alchemist about the trials and tribulations of deconversion, reasons for being an atheist, lacktheism, Calvinism, Christian double-standards regarding testimonial evidence, the state of apologetics, what stuff is real, and more. Here’s this interview on YouTube with video (this episode was recorded on Streamyard and originally posted on YouTube). NA’s channel … Continue reading CA85 Conversation with The Non-Alchemist: Deconversion, Atheism, and Apologetics →...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 29 min
Here’s my debate with Zac of Adherent Apologetics on the problem of evil, hosted by the Non–Alchemist. I focus on the problem of animal suffering and defend an argument called the teleological argument from evil. Video of the debate here linktr.ee/emersongreen Listen to our sister show, Walden Pod here Rate the show on iTunes here … Continue reading Debate: Is evil strong evidence against God? →...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 40 min
There are five reasons, broadly, why I’m an atheist: I. We don’t need God to explain anything. II. There are few phenomena that are better explained by theistic models than by atheistic models. III. There are many phenomena that are better explained by atheistic models than by theistic models. IV. Theism is more metaphysically profligate … Continue reading CA84 Why I Am An Atheist →
Jul 07, 2021•36 min
Today we discuss the evergreen critique of the design argument from David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume’s skepticism is aimed at the inference to a designer on the basis of our observations of natural objects and their analogy to human artifacts. When two objects are similar effects – say a house and another house … Continue reading CA83 Hume on the Argument from Design →
May 19, 2021•25 min
Happy birthday, David Hume! I thought I’d share Hume (or more accurately, Philo) casually destroying skeptical theism in Part XI of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. His analogy of an architect and a poorly constructed house arose in a discussion of the problem of evil between Philo and Cleanthes, two of Hume’s fictional characters in the … Continue reading Condemn the Architect: Hume’s Answer to Skeptical Theists (Bonus Episode) →...
May 07, 2021•7 min
Can you be an “agnostic atheist,” or are those terms mutually exclusive? I try to explain how the famous four quadrant graph misunderstands the nature of belief, knowledge, and agnosticism. the chart in question Joe Schmid on Agnosticism and Justification [YouTube] Gettier and knowledge with Kane B and Cole Nasrallah [YouTube] What is knowledge? [SEP] … Continue reading CA82 What the ‘agnostic atheist’ graph gets wrong →...
Apr 25, 2021•15 min
Here’s the audio from my recent debate hosted by Adherent Apologetics on the problem of evil. I argue that with respect to suffering, the world looks about as we’d expect it to look if god did not exist. Atheists can do a much better job explaining the kinds, degree, and distribution of suffering we observe … Continue reading Debate: Is evil evidence against God? Emerson Green vs. Dr. Khaldoun Aziz Sweis →...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 34 min
We discuss several reasons to doubt skeptical theism, including Paul Draper’s objection, phenomenal conservatism, divine silence during tragedies, Pandora’s box, and moral paralysis. linktr.ee/emersongreen Subscribe to CA and Walden Pod on YouTube here Listen to our sister show, Walden Pod here Rate the show on iTunes here Support on Patreon here Transcripts available at emersongreenblog.wordpress.com … Continue reading CA81 Skeptical Theism →...
Mar 03, 2021•36 min
Non-believing Christian Philip Goff joins us to discuss religious fictionalism, literalism, religious language, Jordan Peterson, the resurrection, the spread of Christianity, the transcendent, and Christianity without theism. After the interview, I try to work through my thoughts on secular Christianity. I reflect on antitheism, fundamentalism, and what replaces religion after the death of god. Philip … Continue reading CA80 Secular Christianity with Philip Goff →...
Dec 17, 2020•1 hr 53 min
In his 1997 debate with William Lane Craig, Paul Draper considers seven lines of evidence and asks if they are more expected on theism or on naturalism. He argues that the meager moral fruits of theism, mind-brain dependence, evolution, the biological role of pain and pleasure, tragedies, divine silence during tragedies, and religious confusion are … Continue reading CA79 Paul Draper’s Case for Naturalism →...
Dec 01, 2020•34 min
This Halloween, we’ll be discussing the life and work of the great horror author, H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft’s atheism 00:00 – 07:38 Biographical details 07:39 – 12:50 Lovecraft’s reanimation and influence on culture 12:51 – 18:02 Lovecraft and the unknown 18:03 – 20:22 Forbidden knowledge and a New Dark Age 20:23 – 26:14 Fast zombies 26:15 … Continue reading The Atheism & Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft →...
Oct 30, 2020•53 min
This is the audio from my appearance on The Empathetic Atheist YouTube show. Justin & Andy ask me what I take to be the best argument against god and what I take to be the worst argument for god. I apologize for the audio (as well as the video) quality. I don’t know how to … Continue reading Bonus: The EA Show – Interview with Emerson Green →
Oct 23, 2020•55 min
Young earth creationists believe that the earth, humankind, and the universe are approximately six-thousand years old. Scientifically, this is a fringe view, not taken seriously by anyone outside religious circles. However, the majority of Christians in the United States are young earthers. Today, we discuss one particular problem for young earth cosmologies: the distant starlight … Continue reading CA78 Young Earth Creationism & the Distant Starlight Problem →...
Sep 21, 2020•49 min
Abiogenesis is the process by which life arises from non-living matter. Though life’s origin is an open question, abiogenesis research is a thriving interdisciplinary enterprise. In spite of this, many apologists have argued that it’s unlikely we will ever have a scientific explanation of abiogenesis. Abiogenesis is so improbable on naturalism, they say, that we … Continue reading CA77 Since Matter First Writhed: The Mystery of Abiogenesis →...
Jul 24, 2020•34 min
We complete our trilogy on igtheism and discuss epistemic questions about god’s attributes, the historical development of god’s nature, the experience of god, god’s relationship with logical truths, absence of evidence, and address the inevitable retreat into transcendence. Follow me on Twitter @waldenpod Listen to our sister show, Walden Pod here Rate the show on … Continue reading CA76 The Incoherence of God (pt. III) →...
May 28, 2020•28 min
We define our terms, address Graham Oppy’s claim that igtheism is self-defeating, discuss logical positivism and its relationship with igtheism, and present an igtheist divine hiddenness argument. Listen to our sister show, Walden Pod here Rate the show on iTunes here Support on Patreon here Subscribe to CA and Walden Pod on YouTube here Transcripts … Continue reading CA75 The Incoherence of God (pt. II) →...
May 12, 2020•39 min
Can we make any sense of the idea of god? God is supposed to be an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, timeless, spaceless, immutable, disembodied conscious mind. We begin our series on igtheism by discussing several problems with these divine attributes. Is god unintelligible? Is this episode unintelligible? You’ll have to be the judge. Listen to our … Continue reading CA74 The Incoherence of God (pt. I) →...
May 11, 2020•22 min
Why did the Romans kill Jesus? When I was a Christian, I was taught that the Jews were primarily responsible for the death of Jesus. The Romans may have carried it out, but it was ultimately motivated by Jesus’s conflict with Jewish authorities over his transgressions of Jewish law (calling himself god, blasphemy, etc.). Crucifixion, … Continue reading CA73 Why Was Jesus Killed? →
Apr 10, 2020•23 min
