Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

1. Open Microsoft Word (I use Office XP). 2. If the symbols you need are present in the default font, keep it, else change the font to Lucida Sans Unicode (which my research says ships with Windows 98 and higher) or Arial Unicode MS (which ships with Office 2002 and higher). Arial Unicode MS is [...]

God’s nature or actions may justify the prefix “super” for two reasons. Either God stands in such a relationship to nature as to be somehow above it, or God’s nature is very different from the natures of created things in such a way as to be more excellent than they. The first reason yields the [...]

Johnny-Dee of Fides Quaerens Intellectum has picked my blog as one of his personal favorites. Thank you, my friend; I am very honored.

Deductive Evil Disproofs of the Existence of God (1) Evil and Omnipotence (2) The Problem of Evil (3) Plantinga on the Free Will Defense (4) A Sound Logical Argument from Evil (5) Unjustified Evil and God’s Choice 1. Evil and Omnipotenceby J.L. Mackie In this brilliant and beautifully argued paper Mackie gives the best presentation [...]

m-w.com defines it quite competently as “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities).” And here is Rothbard on scientism.

“I don’t think the ‘supernatural’ character of God is any essential part of Christian doctrine. So the fact that in some sense God could turn out to be a ‘natural’ entity doesn’t especially bother me,” writes Victor Reppert. “Obviously if you’ve got a definition of the natural that excludes the theistic God in some non-arbitrary [...]

Definitional Disproofs of the Existence of God (1) Can God’s Existence Be Disproved? (2) God’s Non-Existence: A Reply to Mr. Rainer and Mr. Hughes (3) Proving the Non-Existence of God (4) Moral Virtues and the Non-Existence of God (5) God and Moral Autonomy 1. Can God’s Existence Be Disproved?by J.N. Findlay Findlay begins with panache; [...]

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has called for an apology from himself for perpetuating the classic anti-Semitic stereotype of the Jews as a perpetually whining victim group. “It is simply false that Jews are hated by many and need to protect themselves by an organization such as the ADL by playing on the terror [...]

Everyone has heard the truism that one should take something one likes to do and find a way to get paid for doing it. But how to ensure that you enjoy your work? One word: competence. Learn every nook and cranny of your trade or science, and you’ll be guaranteed a positive utility of labor [...]

If there is universal salvation, then capital punishment for breaking human laws is illegitimate. For hell represents the destruction of the soul, and if God’s power is great enough to save everyone, no matter how evil, then capital punishment, which represents the destruction of the body and is, as such, a temporal equivalent of eternal [...]

Now we come to the most fascinating chapters in Smith’s book. In them he builds up a brutal indictment of Christianity as an “anti-life” religion. Let’s look at some of his claims. Here is our author’s definition of “religious morality”: Basically, [it] defends a universal moral order established by god and existing independently of man. [...]