#165 Stephen Law: Naturalism, Liberalism, And The Religious And The Atheists

The Dissenter

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Dr. Stephen Law is formally Reader in Philosophy at Heythrop College, and before that Research Fellow at The Queen’s College Oxford. He is currently editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK. He has published several books, including The Philosophy Gym, A Very Short Introduction to Humanism, and Believing Bullshit. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and Commerce and in 2008 became the provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK.

In this episode, we start off by talking about the limitations of naturalism in terms of knowledge acquisition, the is-ought problem, and the flaws of relativism. Then, we move on to discussing Liberalism, as is presented by Stephen Law in his book, The War for Children’s Minds, and the important distinction between freedom of thought and freedom of action. We also deal with the issue of religion in a scientific world and the approach of the New Atheists. We question the idea that the West is going through some sort of “moral crisis”, and the bad outcomes that pushing for that narrative might have. And, finally, we address the flaws in arguments between religious people and atheist when it comes to the problem of evil and the Evil-God challenge.

Time Links:

00:54 The limitations of naturalism

09:12 The is-ought distinction

13:56 The flaws of relativism

17:09 Liberalism and freedom of thought

25:20 Religion in a modern scientific world

28:24 The New Atheists

31:44 Freedom of thought is not freedom of action

36:04 Are we really going through a “moral crisis” in the West?

41:33 The problem of evil and the Evil-God challenge in debates between religious people and atheists

48:25 Follow Dr. Law’s work!

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Twitter handle: @stephenlaw60

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