Knowing and believing are two different things. Below I discuss 1) facts and opinions, 2) the inability to prove or disprove God’s existence, 3) faith and belief, 4) key sources of doubt, and 5) engaging the tension of faith and doubt. I. Facts and opinions Sense impressions in the natural world, which the brain organizes into ideas, are the starting point for knowledge about the world. Our capacity for reason—the logical relation of propositions to each other—is central to this process. But reason can’t prove that reason by itself can establish truth. However, we can say that logically co ..read more

© Dave DuBay. An old copy of the complete works of Shakespeare. It’s said that the past is a foreign culture. We can’t understand colonial America or Victorian Britain unless we first understand that they thought differently from people today. Paradigm shifts happen throughout history, and one is happening right now. Unless we understand that woke progressives think differently from classical liberals, we can’t understand woke culture, or the Trumpian adaptation of it. Liberalism in decline Liberalism is retreating, and it’s not just the rise of Donald Trump. Progressives are also leaving libe ..read more

© Dave DuBay Rape is funny. Rape can be downright hilarious — when it happens to men. We laugh at prison rape jokes. But people who joke about women getting raped are rightly denounced as sexist creeps. Yet, if you include prison rape, American men are raped as often as (or more than) women. It’s obviously sexist when people are insensitive to women, hence the focus on men not being empathetic enough. The male protective role requires men to show greater empathy than they are shown by others. The agenda for claiming that hiding your vulnerability is “toxic masculinity” becomes clear ..read more

Each of these philosophies has important points to make, and each has aspects that won’t appeal to some people. © Dave DuBay. Near Savannah, Georgia. Here’s a life philosophy that combines and modifies elements of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Buddhism: We all want pleasure and to avoid pain, but our fear of things that are beyond our control is a frequent cause of suffering. And fear is the origin of other destructive emotions like anger, hate, and desperation. To reduce suffering, we must accept that nothing is up to us except our deliberate choices. We also can choose to accept that everythi ..read more

Is being Woke a religion? What about taking the Red Pill? A video of progressive activists engaging in church service style call-and-answer to affirm their commitment to Woke ideology shows that the answer may be “yes.” Video courtesy of Google Account But something is missing. Wokeness has no god. And it’s likely that many Wokeists are atheist or agnostic. Is a godless religion possible? Writing for Unherd, Mary Harrington claims that “faith is making a comeback.” Human nature’s default position is faith, not reason: “The triumph of Reason over Faith proved short-lived. Like water that’s been ..read more

If you think Christian atheism is an oxymoron, you might be right. On Twitter, psychology professor Ben Winegard seems to favor the idea of separating Christian ethics from Christian theology: It’s hard to know if Winegard is being serious or sarcastic. I hope it’s the latter, but based on his follow up comments I wonder if he might be serious. I responded to Winegard’s tweet: Not being a Christian, who am I to say if or how Christians should reform their religion? Or, if one wants Christianity without Christ then call it something else, like humanism. It is what it is There’s a larger probl ..read more

White House Trail, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. © Dave DuBay Can you be a doubter who also has faith? Is being agnostic the same as being an atheist?  From a rational perspective, agnosticism is the most tenable position because it acknowledges the limits of what we can know. This doesn’t mean, though, that faith is irrational. Something that’s not inconsistent what we know to be impossible may be believable for some. But that doesn’t mean they should be believed. Are you certain? Agnosticism is about what you don’t know. Belief is a different question.  God either is or isn’t real. Bu ..read more

Protest, polarization, and opportunity. © Dave DuBay. Savannah, Georgia. The challenge of a complex, diverse society is, in the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” King was a Black man who was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991. The video footage led many of us to believe the officers would be convicted in a court of law. But their acquittal sparked riots in LA. And here we are again. Cultural Conflict “Us versus them” seems built into human nature—we are a tribal species. Some ideologies amplify tribalism. Other ideologies mitigate tribalism. The United St ..read more

Maybe we’re returning to “normalcy”—Twitter is alight with arguments about transgender rights. Harry Potter author JK Rowling put transgender issues front and center when she responded to a Devex.com article which states that, “An estimated 1.8 billion girls, women, and gender non-binary persons menstruate, and this has not stopped because of the pandemic.” Rowling didn’t like that. “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” And it’s not just Rowling’s identity as a woman that concerns her. “If sex isn’t rea ..read more

© Dave DuBay You’ve got head spinnin’, no kiddin’, I can’t pin you down. Okay, I’m plagiarizing John Legend. And totally taking him out of context. But it kinda fits 2020, right? At times like this, the advice to focus on what’s up to us—our deliberate choices—and be indifferent to the rest, seems impossible. Did that cop really have to knee George Floyd in the neck till he was dead? No, of course not. Did the cop intend to kill Floyd? I don’t know. But when you’re kneeing a man’s neck while he gasps, “I can’t breathe,” it’s a deliberate choice to keep doing what you’re doing—knowing that deat ..read more