Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

My claim here is that Christian virtues are superior to atheist virtues. In proof, consider a moral virtue, for example, the virtue of piety which is a species of justice. It has four levels. First, there is natural piety or reverence one pays to his parents or, generally, honor or dulia given to a mentor [...]

This chapter in his book is particularly bad, so much so that I did not at first even want to review it. But here are a few points to illustrate my conclusion. First, Mills calls ID a “cult,” (Atheist Universe, 209) because it conflicts with the literal interpretation of early Genesis. In fact, of course, [...]

Mills invokes the law of the conservation of mass-energy saying that mass-energy can neither be created nor destroyed. He proceeds to derive from it the conclusion that “the universe, in one form or another, in one density or another, always existed.” (Atheist Universe, 74) Now it is true that matter and energy are imperishable – [...]

The argument sometimes takes the following form: Interviewer: But don’t you think there has to be some kind of ultimate justice for human beings? People who do wrong are not always punished in this world, and good is not always rewarded. Don’t these injustices require an afterlife to redress the imbalance: where good is ultimately [...]

Here’s what: Another reason why I don’t find Jesus admirable is that He squandered His alleged supernatural powers on frivolous nonsense. Instead of bringing mankind a cure for heart disease and cancer, He used His magic to curse a fig tree. Instead of ending birth defects and infant mortality, He filled pigs with demons. Instead [...]

Our author writes: “If everything except God requires a cause, then the ‘First Cause’ argument becomes ad hoc [i.e., inconsistent and prejudicially applied] and is thus logically impermissible.” (Atheist Universe, 30) 1. Who says that ad hoc arguments are “logically impermissible”? Being ad hoc is perhaps a weakness in an argument, but such an argument [...]

In his Atheist Universe David Mills is asked by an interviewer: “But why so many people believe in God?” He replies: “Because, again, they were taught to believe as small children and because almost everybody they know believes in God also. We should recognize that all children are born as atheists. There is no child [...]

The basic dilemma that Plantinga unveils for us is as follows (we disregard nominalism which our author argues is irrelevant to the problem): either God is absolutely sovereign (or absolutely omnipotent), and all truths are contingent; or some things are independent of God and in fact condition or press against Him in causing Him to [...]

The question Plantinga addresses in this beautiful little book is: How are we to construe God’s aseity and sovereignty, given that certain entities, such as “the whole Platonic pantheon of universals, properties, kinds, propositions, numbers, sets, states of affairs, and possible worlds,” (3) seem at first glance to be independent of God? Further, is God [...]

Every time something bad happens to Americans, the latter are said to have “lost” their “innocence.” The American people, full of light and goodness, are perpetually astonished that there exist in the world people who do not very much like them. For, let us be serious, what’s not to like? Who, us?, we say in [...]

Suppose that there are n people considering whether or not to vote, including you. Suppose that all are perfectly “rational,” by which I mean that they are “narrow utility maximizers.” Then whatever line of reasoning you follow, all will follow, too, in deciding whether to vote or not. Hence if the sensible thing for you [...]

In his discussion of the TA, Carroll advances several objections to it. First, he points to the existence of evil or disteleology in the world: …for all its beauty and grandeur, the universe is also full of, well, to be delicate, let us say that the universe is also full of nasties. I suppose I [...]

There are a number of versions of the teleological argument (TA) for the existence of God. The first one is as follows: (1) Universal order and harmony in the conspiring operation of a vast multitude of separate elements can be explained only by the postulate of an intelligent cause. (2) The universe as a whole [...]

Hilarious. (Note: The man in a pointy hat is probably the Pope, and the “nerd” is, of course, William Dembski.)

The Democrats want to destroy the world by strangling or suffocating it, slowly. They want to take away all of our creative liberties, stop the flux of events, and establish a perpetual calm. The Republicans want to blow the world up, quickly, possibly through a nuclear war. Thus with the Democrats we will die with [...]

Sometimes people take exception to His being portrayed as a tall and handsome guy with distinctly European features. But remember that, first, His mother was Jewish aristocracy, from the house of David, and she was therefore probably more beautiful than your average peasant girl. Furthermore, God’s grace was stronger in Mary than in any other [...]

Dawkins tells the following charming story: I was driving through the English countryside with my daughter Juliet, then aged six, and she pointed out some flowers by the wayside. I asked her what she thought wildflowers were for. She gave a rather thoughtful answer. ‘Two things,’ she said. ‘To make the world pretty, and to [...]

There is a scene in the movie Gladiator with the following dialog: Commodus: My father’s war against the barbarians – he said it himself: it achieved nothing. But the people loved him. Lucilla: The people always love victories. Commodus: Why? They didn’t see the battles. What do they care about Germania? Lucilla: They care about [...]

Joel Waldfogel of Slate presents the conclusions of a slew of “economists” that “people are inept decision-makers. They lack self-control. They save too little. They have trouble deciding whether to plan for events that are unlikely to happen. They can’t remember what they’ve liked, and they can’t even accurately predict what they’ll want next week. [...]

Ludwig von Mises described the idea of historical progress (which he did not share) as follows: “Each later stage of human affairs is, by virtue of its being a later stage, also a higher and better stage. Nothing is permanent in human conditions except this irresistible urge toward progress.” (Human Action, 694) Something similar, according [...]