Category Archives: Philosophy

How Christ released Prometheus (but not like Adam did)

Posted on 18/01/2021 by Jon Garvey

I’m reading a recent book by Carl Trueman, recommended by a Cambridge contemporary who read my e-book, Seeing Through Smoke (and generally liked it). It’s entitled The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Trueman is a Christian historian who seeks to explain the origin of our contemporary moral confusion. To capture his theme, how did a sentence like “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body” come to make sense?

Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Prometheus, Theology | 1 Comment

Delegitimation: a force for anarchy and liberation

Posted on 15/12/2020 by Jon Garvey

Peter Boghossian is a US philosopher who has recently drawn attention to the post-modern phenomenon of “delegitimation.” Boghossian is a militant atheist, and no friend of Christianity, having worked on rather crass ways to “deprogram” believers in casual conversations, on the mistaken belief that we are captive to irrationality imposed by authority. But in these strange times, the champions of Enlightenment rationalism can sometimes be co-belligerents, simply because the Enlightenment grew out of Christianity’s commitment to truth, and we are now, without hyperbole, rushing into a post-truth society.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Suffering and anguish

Posted on 30/10/2020 by Jon Garvey

David Snoke’s presentation at last week’s Christian Scientific Society webinar added a useful thought to my treatment of animal suffering in God’s Good Earth. This question plays a large part in the kind of theodicy tangles that Evolutionary theologies tend to get into, deep time being held to build up an immense “debt” of suffering for God to requite, and evolution itself (apparently) being grounded on senseless and wasteful suffering.

Posted in Creation, Medicine, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Still places at God’s Good Earth Webinar

Posted on 23/10/2020 by Jon Garvey

I’m just re-posting a reminder that I’m giving a presentation on my first book, God’s Good Earth Earth: the case for an unfallen creation at a Christian Scientific Society Webinar thos Saturday, 24th October, on natural evil. It’s in the morning, in the US, or the afternoon in Europe. If you’re an Australian reader, you’ll have to set your alarm clock. Speakers are Stuart Burgess from UK, and Fuz Rana, Scott Minnich and David Snoke from America, and the general tone of the others’ abstracts seems to be on “design” good or bad. It’s free, though they ask for a donation in the region of $20 for the logistics (not … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | 2 Comments

Anything by any other name is… nothing at all

Posted on 12/08/2020 by Jon Garvey

The word “black,” as in “Black Lives Matter”, is simultaneously both strictly defined, and as slippery as an eel. That’s a bad omen.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology | 4 Comments

Cancelling Malthus

Posted on 31/07/2020 by Jon Garvey

The Antiques Roadshow being forbidden to film normally because of the lockdown madness, the BEEB showed one of last year’s editions on Sunday, filmed at an historic Scottish Castle.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science | 5 Comments

The state execution of science

Posted on 30/07/2020 by Jon Garvey

I finally got round to reading Scientocracy, (eds. Patrick J. Michaels and Terence Kealey). It’s only nine months old and already outdated by COVID-19 – or rather, thoroughly vindicated by the rapid descent into censorship of all but official government policy on what “the science” says, despite the clear and demonstrable failure of the predictive models most governments are still following.

Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science | 3 Comments

Hump retrospective 7: the natural evolution of mankind

Posted on 09/03/2020 by Jon Garvey

…with consciousness, spirit and eternal life Sy Garte, in his excellent new book The Works of His Hands, mentions three intractable problems in science (because there seems no way they can arise through “materialistic natural causes”); and all three are origins questions.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 5 Comments

Continuity and discontinuity

Posted on 02/02/2020 by Jon Garvey

Here’s an interesting podcast by Intelligent Design proponent Paul Nelson, a philosopher of science, whom I’ve got to know a little both through Peaceful Science and via a mutual friend.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Are research paradigms faith commitments?

Posted on 30/01/2020 by Jon Garvey

When I was about five, I joined the TV comic’s Red Ray Club, whose badge was proudly preserved in the family until my brother wisely threw it out of his home a year or two ago.

Posted in Genealogical Adam, Philosophy, Science, Theology | 2 Comments