The Afterlife of Rachel Held Evans

 I followed her on Twitter, before her death in 2019 at just age 37. She was the thinking person's evangelical. Pride of Dayton TN.

"With humility and openness, Held Evans helped reintroduce a mode of spiritual inquiry in America that was based in seeking mystery, not certainty. "She made Christianity seem like a decent place to be while you asked questions, rather than something you had to abandon to be free," Kathryn Lofton, a professor of religious studies at Yale, said. Held Evans quickly became a major spiritual figure, appearing on television shows and serving as one of President Obama's faith advisers. "I think Rachel would be the first person to scoff at any attempt to beatify her," Sarah Bessey, her friend, told me. "She's one of the few spiritual teachers I've known who had the humility to regularly ask herself, 'What if I'm wrong?' "

https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-afterlife-of-rachel-held-evans

Rorty

	Michael S Roth ⁦‪@mroth78‬⁩ My take on Dick Rorty: "Pragmatists can only point out that we depend on one another & thus should develop narratives that will encourage us to listen to one another in order to find more inclusive solutions to the problems that plague us" ⁦‪@LAReviewofBooks‬⁩ lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-can…   10/27/21, 10:48 AM

"[W]e do not, if I am right, need a theory of rationality, we do need a narrative of maturation." He is committed to the anti-authoritarian Enlightenment project of replacing obedience to the Divine (whether in the shape of a deity or a monarch) with obedience only to "a law one gives oneself," as Rousseau and Kant had it. We may arrive at an agreement about the laws we give ourselves — we don't discover the One True Law. Pragmatism is anti-authoritarian because it rejects the notion that we need something nonhuman (God, Reality, Truth) for our salvation.

Consistency test

Philosophy Experiment: Battleground God

Are your religious beliefs internally consistent?

Put them to the test here!

https://t.co/mUE4Xxdk9r
(https://twitter.com/philosophersmag/status/1452087453246951429?s=02)

A&P returns to campus!

 Returning to MTSU

January 2022

PHIL 3310, Atheism & Philosophy

T & Th, 2:40 pm, James Union Building 202

This year’s theme: Atheism, humanism, and secularism

TEXTS

• Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, by Julian Baggini

"Atheism is often considered to be a negative, dark, and pessimistic belief characterized by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. Baggini shows how a life without religious belief can be positive, meaningful, and moral."

• Humanism-A Very Short Introduction, by Stephen Law

"The humanist is not simply one who denies the truth of religious belief, but one who believes we can enjoy meaningful, purposeful, and good lives without religion. And far from embracing moral nihilism, humanists are often deeply committed people, to be found at the forefront of many important ethical campaigns."

• Secularism: A Very Short Introduction, by Andrew Copson

• The Little Book of Humanism: Universal lessons on finding purpose, meaning and joy by Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson 

• Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism, by Philip Kitcher

"Kitcher thoughtfully and sensitively considers how secularism can respond to the worries and challenges that all people confront, including the issue of mortality. He investigates how secular lives compare with those of people who adopt religious doctrines as literal truth, as well as those who embrace less literalistic versions of religion. Whereas religious belief has been important in past times, Kitcher concludes that evolution away from religion is now essential. He envisions the successors to religious life, when the senses of identity and community traditionally fostered by religion will instead draw on a broader range of cultural items—those provided by poets, filmmakers, musicians, artists, scientists, and others."

• Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism, by Richard Rorty

"Anti-authoritarianism, on this view, means acknowledging that our cultural inheritance is always open to revision because no authority exists to ascertain the truth, once and for all. If we cannot rely on the unshakable certainties of God or nature, then all we have left to go on—and argue with—are the opinions and ideas of our fellow humans. The test of these ideas, Rorty suggests, is relatively simple: Do they work? Do they produce the peace, freedom, and happiness we desire?"

For more info: phil.oliver@mtsu.edu 

Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism?

"...Christians ignorant of their own history, for instance, will be surprised to learn that their earliest ancestors in the faith were themselves ridiculed as “atheists” because they refused to participate in polytheistic worship: in Greek, atheos means “without gods,” not anti-God. Meanwhile, those who came to atheism via the new atheists might be startled to find that many of their intellectual forebears did not wage war on religion, or even feel any distaste for it.

In fairness, contemporary American atheists Christians ignorant of their own history, for instance, will be surprised to learn that their earliest ancestors in the faith were themselves ridiculed as “atheists” because they refused to participate in polytheistic worship: in Greek, atheos means “without gods,” not anti-God. Meanwhile, those who came to atheism via the new atheists might be startled to find that many of their intellectual forebears did not wage war on religion, or even feel any distaste for it.

In fairness, contemporary American atheists may be inclined to wage war on religion because religion has been waging war on them for so long.share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker

Mencken

Once upon a time a guy like this could be a major newspaper columnist even in America: https://t.co/VxREcxFlzo
(https://twitter.com/BrianLeiter/status/1444680308985667595?s=02)