Stock Answers: An Introduction and Table of Contents

Introduction

Often enough I find myself debating religion on Twitter. However, it's difficult to do this without the argument devolving into an exchange of insults, and I think this is largely due to the space constraint of 140 characters.

Now, I enjoy a good insult as much as the next guy, but I do have actual reasons for agnosticism/atheism. Good ones too. These arguments deserve to be heard, especially by the believers with whom I'm debating. It would be quite handy for me (and perhaps for other atheist readers as well) if I had a single place to which I could link references pertinent to the topic at hand. That's why I'm starting the "Stock Answers" series here on my blog.

The "Stock Answers" will likely range in topic from philosophy, to theology, apologetics, science, biblical hermeneutics, and to whatever other field of study my discussions take me. Thus, if the person I'm debating begs the question, I can simply put a link in my Tweet to an article about why petitio principii is a fallacious argument.

Granted, no information here will be original (most of the theological and philosophical issues are much older than people realize). But it's important to me that this info should be A) easily accessible, and B) in my own words. Quite often I have had debates online where the opponent simply linked to an article that she felt was definitive, yet she herself ill understood it. That's an appeal to authority (a fallacy which I'll certainly write about in this series eventually), and that's something I'd like to avoid. Yes, I will try to cite sources when appropriate, but it should be known from the outset that I'm not simply regurgitating information that I've learned by rote; I've actually reflected on both sides of a given argument and have chosen the position that I feel is the most reasonable.

Why should we care what the most reasonable argument is? What other considerations are there by which we could judge the validity of an argument? Beauty? Impact on our feelings? Popular assent? Such considerations can change from person to person and from culture to culture. That is to say, they are subjective or culturally relative. Reason is universal; it is the same from person to person and culture to culture, and so it will be my guiding light for each post in this series.

Table of Contents

This section will be updated as new posts are made.
Part I - The Cosmological Argument






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