Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

The most interesting thing he says about this argument is that it is much simpler to postulate one God than multiple universes to account for fine-tuning. Maybe. But what if some kind of multiverse is a consequence of an otherwise unimpeachable theory of physics? To that idea our author replies that physical cosmology is a [...]

One consequence of God’s simplicity, in particular, of the fact that God’s essence is His existence, is His imperishability or eternity: God has always been and will always be: He can’t die, nor was there a time (in our universe or in aeviternity) when He was not. Another such consequence is that God can exist [...]

One’s preferred moral theory differs according to one’s temperament; we have a sort of temperamental relativism. For example, the NT Rational morality is utilitarianism; the NF Idealist morality may be called “integrity”; the SJ Guardian morality is any deontology; and the SP Artisan morality is based on one’s creative or destructive output. The NF and [...]

A good object is one which fulfills its purpose; for example, a good knife is one that cuts well. So, a good universe is one which fulfills its purpose, and the best universe is one which fulfills its purpose better than or as well as any other possible universe. As I have suggested, the goodness [...]

In the gnostic “The Apocalypse of Paul” it is written: But I saw in the fourth heaven according to class — I saw the angels resembling gods, the angels bringing a soul out of the land of the dead. They placed it at the gate of the fourth heaven. And the angels were whipping it [...]

Don’t you find it a little annoying that the same imagery in the Bible is used to describe both God and the devil? For example: “King/prince/lord”: “Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied.” (Mt 27:11) “God [...]

The first one is fairly obvious: interfering with choices of free will leads to problems. If you are working on a project, and God says to you that you will succeed, does it mean that you indeed will continue with the project and succeed or that you must continue with the project and succeed? Can [...]

Noam Chomsky, besides his revolting communism, also confuses Ron Paul with Pat Buchanan the “paleo-conservative.” Buchanan is a sort of nationalist who wants to stay out of foreign entanglements, unless it is in the interest of the feds to intervene. I don’t trust Buchanan for two reasons. First, because I think he is a political [...]

Rawls writes: “Looking at the question from the standpoint of the original position, the parties would reject the principle of utility and adopt the more realistic idea of designing the social order on a principle of reciprocal advantage” (A Theory of Justice, revised ed., 155). But what is the free market but a principle of [...]

Responding to a column by a member of our College Libertarians, Adam E. Zandarski writes that with the advent of the New Deal “[w]e, the people of America, said to the rest of the world, ‘gone are the days of a fend-for-yourself society. We recognize an obligation we have, as brothers and sisters of the [...]

In the real world Rawls’s key criticism of utilitarianism does not normally apply. In a free society no one is required to sacrifice his welfare for the benefit of others. Therefore, the idea that “allegiance to the social system may demand that some, particularly the less favored, should forgo advantages for the sake of the [...]

You see, the vast majority of Americans are, just like David Bernstein himself, basically clean and pure folk, full of love and goodness, sort of like Moses. God forbid that the worthless subhumans like “9/11 and various other conspiracy theorists, southern secessionists, Nazis and fascists, anti-Semites and racists” be ever attracted to Ron Paul. I [...]

I’ll be finishing up my thesis.

Consider the following standard justification of libertarianism: liberty makes it possible for people to pursue their diverse goals and conceptions of the good and virtues and flourishing and self-perfection and, finally, happiness in whatever way they see fit without infringing on one another. (We can define happiness here not as satisfaction of desires, whatever they [...]

The idea is that numerous Christian martyrs have suffered for their faith which indicates that there is something to that faith, because the martyrs thought it would be better to endure imprisonment, torture, and death than to renounce the faith or to worship a false god. Stefan Molyneux’s response is as follows: “Remember a couple [...]

Aquinas writes that it is normally not possible to know that one has received grace with certainty but only by signs, imperfectly, such as “when [a person] is conscious of delighting in God, and of despising worldly things, and inasmuch as a man is not conscious of any mortal sin”; and “by experiencing a certain [...]

The distinction between the 2nd-level God and the 3rd-level charity allows us to answer easily questions such as “Does God know what time it is now?” The answer is yes, He does, but this knowledge is not natural to Him but is infused into Him as grace by the 3rd-level charity. Similarly, with respect to [...]

According to Christianity, God interacts with the world in four ways: (1) sustaining it in existence, (2) working miracles, (3) bestowing grace, and (4) through the Incarnation of Jesus and its consequences, such as forgiving sins. Suppose now that deism is true, such that God exists but does not deal with His creation in ways [...]

According to Rawls: “Since it is not reasonable [for a person in the original position] to expect more than an equal share in the division of social primary goods, and since it is not rational for him to agree to less, the sensible thing is to acknowledge as the first step a principle of justice [...]

On the Glen Beck’s CNN show Horowitz said: “There are plenty of, unfortunately, libertarian websites which are indistinguishable from the anti-American lefties: lewrockwell.com and others like that. They are totally in bed with Islamo-fascists and have turned against this country.” What an asshole! It goes to show: once a communist, always a communist; or, to [...]