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Regarding objective morality, if we assume that such exists, it would seem to me that we have no means of determining what it is. As such, all we can rely on are our subjective opinions about it. Hence, we in effect are all subjective moralists in practice, making this objective morality of no...

If you are supposed to give and obey without expecting anything back, why do some Christians focus so much on heaven? Surely if the purpose of life is to give and obey without expecting anything back, a finite life would have just as much purpose?

As has already been pointed out in this thread, Nietzsche was not a nihilist. Indeed, a large part of what drove him to attempt to build a philosophy without deity was that he feared that, once people realised that they had killed God, they would blindly fall into nihilism. He was indeed an...

Do you believe that you are worthy of obtaining heaven? Have your works been good enough to get an infinite amount of goodness in exchange?

Rewards? Seems a bit greedy. For what, exactly, are you being rewarded? You do not get to heaven by works, so eternal life cannot be a reward for being good. Or maybe you do get to heaven by works - Christians cannot agree on that, as the Bible contradicts itself on that point. And, to reverse...

I believe that life only has value/meaning/purpose (not that I am happy with any of those concepts in any case, but it is hard thinking of a better way to express it) in each moment, which means that whether it is a short life or an eternal one is besides the point. The joy you bring or the...

It would seem to me that the success of methodological naturalism in explaining our universe is fairly strong evidence for the truth of philosophical naturalism ... It is not proof, of course. But the fact is that science, by starting with the operating assumption that everything is natural...

Empiricism plus scepticism, constrained by practicality. Note that this means that you have to accept and be honest about uncertainty. But better that than false certainty. (By that I mean that no-one can be certain in their understanding, although many people falsely claim to be).

It is weird that to be sure that they are right in their belief in deity that some Christians have to also believe that everyone in the world secretly believes in deity, too. Very insecure, it seems to me. Why not simply accept the - to me - self-evident fact that some intelligent people...

Sayre, The problem I have with us deciding that justified true belief counts as knowledge is that we cannot know with certainty that any particular belief is true. Therefore, we can never say, 'Such and such belief is knowledge, while such and such other belief is merely a belief.' In my...

Can you give a defence for why justified true belief should be the standard for 'knowledge'? Is it certain that any of your beliefs are true?

If something is logically necessary then it exists regardless of whether or not there is a creator. That is what 'logically necessary' means.

And the US is, of course, the globe. Or two per cent of the globe. One of those - I can't remember ... Meanwhile, where I live it has been over three degrees (proper degrees; celsius) above average for the first 25 days of the year. Global warming: if it isn't warmer than average where you...

If the meaning of life has been determined by god, isn't that by definition subjective? If the meaning of life is some kind of logically necessary thing built into the universe then it would be independent of whether or not a deity existed. Thus, the question of god's existence is entirely...

Making sure that I am confident with my grasp of the material. I am a shy person, so if I can be so certain that I can just have a conversation about it, that makes me feel a lot better.

I do not think that the distinction between belief and knowledge is a meaningful one (and even less so if knowledge is being defined as 'justified true belief'). Given that we can only really rely on inductive reasoning, how do we know that we know? How do we can have a justified and true...

My first, yes. I will be teaching mathematics to year 11 students (15 to 17 will be the age range). Understood. I am not really a country fan, even though I enjoyed Walk the Line. My singing talents would not stretch so far ...

It is a good trend. But it has not yet gotten very far in Australia, unfortunately. I think the cycles suggest that an ice age is at least 10,000 years away, so I would not be too concerned about that. (Although that might be the point that you are making). Being employed is a very important...

A very tricky question. A strong candidate for my worst act would have been to participate in the bullying of an intellectually disabled child when I was in primary school. Another candidate would have been my reaction to a revelation of sexual abuse when I was in my early 20s. It is not...

And nice to see you, Tinker Grey.