Ethan Muse and I spar over the problem of evil, cosmic fine-tuning, infallible popes, and the doctrine of eternal conscious torment.

Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

To support the channel, do please oh please consider donating, either via PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee.

Follow me on X because you’re awesome.

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:44 Rutgers, philosophy, and Catholic apologetics

00:05:08 Ethan’s path into philosophy

00:09:52 The goal of doing philosophy

00:13:52 Ethan’s conversion to Catholicism

00:17:55 Doubts, confidence, and the problem of evil

00:23:45 Miracle evidence and outweighing evil

00:25:04 Fine-tuning and theism

00:28:48 Frequency data, design, and Bayesianism

00:33:43 Mini-verses and apparent design

00:38:20 What fine-tuning means

00:41:04 Apparent design and fragile harmony

00:46:38 The infrared bullseye analogy

00:51:29 Design, stalking horses, and naturalism

00:59:56 Priors, bare theism, and Bayesian machinery

01:04:53 Papal infallibility and alleged counterexamples

01:11:36 Eternal hell and Catholic doctrine

01:19:46 Moral intuition against eternal torment

01:22:42 Saints, sin, and moral authority

01:30:12 Moral progress and Catholic tradition

01:32:57 Moral disagreement and final thoughts

Michael Huemer, philosopher at U.C. Boulder, joins me for a wide-ranging discussion of arguments for and against the existence of God, with special focus on his new argument for atheism: the impossibility of an infinite God. Check out Mike’s book, Knowledge, Value, and Reality: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy.

Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

To support the channel, do please oh please consider donating, either via PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee.

Follow me on X because you’re awesome.

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:42 Huemer’s research on consciousness

00:05:42 Could LLMs be conscious?

00:08:11 Physicalism and consciousness

00:14:36 Why physicalism became so popular

00:17:16 Metaphysics and scientific evidence

00:21:01 Could God be empirically detected?

00:23:37 Why Huemer is agnostic

00:25:48 Philip Goff’s limited God

00:27:23 Can a limited God explain evil?

00:36:03 Divine psychology and skeptical theism

00:38:37 Can theism make predictions?

00:46:54 Scientific confirmation and theistic arguments

00:51:59 Which theistic arguments fail?

00:53:14 The ontological argument

00:58:06 The modal ontological argument

01:01:03 Necessary beings and modal intuitions

01:07:23 The Kalam cosmological argument

01:08:54 Could time have a beginning?

01:12:22 Can God create time?

01:18:22 Cosmology and the Big Bang

01:23:48 Actual and potential infinities

01:26:00 Huemer’s new argument for atheism

01:29:28 Divine infinity and omniscience

Is it even possible to have empirical evidence for God's existence? What if the stars realigned to spell out "I exist! Sincerely, God." Wouldn't THAT count as evidence for God? It seems that the answer is yes. But then, various objections to arguments for God seem to imply that even this extravagant, awesome evidence for God would not be any evidence whatsoever for theism. To many philosophers, that implication implies that these objections prove too much, and must therefore fail. In this debate, eight philosophers go head-to-head over these fascinating questions.

Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

To support the channel, do please oh please consider donating, either via PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee.

Follow me on X because you’re awesome.

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:10 Miles Donahue’s opening statement

00:07:46 Brian Cutter’s opening statement

00:13:16 Noah McKay’s opening statement

00:18:30 Travis Dumsday’s opening statement

00:23:30 Paul Draper’s opening statement

00:29:15 Alex Malpass’s opening statement

00:35:18 Nathan Bray’s opening statement

00:40:41 Kevin Scharp’s opening statement

00:47:15 Miles Donahue’s cross-examination

01:03:22 Alex Malpass’s cross-examination

01:20:15 Brian Cutter’s cross-examination

01:33:41 Nathan Bray’s cross-examination

01:49:03 Paul Draper’s cross-examination

02:01:21 Travis Dumsday’s cross-examination

02:10:54 Kevin Scharp’s cross-examination

02:24:49 Noah McKay’s cross-examination