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A "one-stop shopping superstore" in the marketplace of ideas; a searchable collection of resources and interactive opportunities; a ResourceBASE containing thousands of articles, reviews, research papers, essays, books & book chapters, commentaries, video & audio files, poems and more; rooted in the university, sponsored by Christian Leadership Ministries, the faculty outreach and training arm of Campus Crusade for Christ International, Leadership U includes resources from the high school to research levels, with an emphasis on the scholarly; a multi-disciplinary vehicle to help reach professors, students and other thinkers with the best in Christian thought on a variety of compelling issues; a growing community of apologists for the historical Christian faith who are engaging their culture on a variety of fronts; a current-issues-based approach to the deeper issues facing humanity (e.g., evil and suffering, morality and ethics, public policy, philosophy, origins and eternity).
Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University (@Amazon)
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John Greco is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, where he has taught in the Philosophy Department since receiving his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1989. He is the author of Putting Skeptics in Their Place: The Nature of Skeptical Arguments and Their Role in Philosophical Inquiry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and co-editor with Ernest Sosa ofThe Blackwell Guide to Epistemology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999). He has published essays in epistemology, moral theory, and philosophy of religion in journals such as American Philosophical Quarterly, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Philosophical Perspectives and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. He is also the author of "Virtue Epistemology" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and "Virtues in Epistemology" in Oxford Handbook of Epistemology.
Nancy R. Pearcey, Charles B. Thaxton (Crossway Books: Jul 1, 1994), 304 pages.
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I consider The Soul of Science to be a most significant book which, in
our scientific age, should be required reading for all thinking
Christians and all practicing scientists. The authors demonstrate how
the flowering of modern science depended upon the Judeo-Christian
worldview of the existence of a real physical contingent universe,
created and held in being by an omnipotent personal God, with man
having the capabilities of rationality and creativity, and thus being
capable of investigating it. Pearcey and Thaxton make excellent use of
analogies to elucidate difficult concepts, and the clarity of their
explanations for the nonspecialist, for example, of Einstein's
relativity theories or of the informational content of DNA and its
consequences for theories of prebiotic evolution, are quite
exceptional, alone making the volume worth purchasing." ~ Dr. David
Shotton, Lecturer in Cell Biology, Department of Zoology, University of
Oxford
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In its own words: "The Secular Web is a website operated by the Internet Infidels, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the Internet... With over 8,000 documents and as many as 600,000 unique visitors per month, the Secular Web is the largest and most heavily visited nontheistic website on the Internet... The Secular Web is the definitive resource for online atheists, humanists, agnostics and freethinkers." The Secular Web hosts a multitude of contemporary and classic essays to this end in their library as well as a lively forum, blog, and newswire. In addition to addressing issues of faith and philosophy, science and ethics, the Secular Web publishes regular criticism of the "religious right". Books, videos, and bumper stickers are for sale. Sympathizers can find a list of likeminded organizations ready to enlist them for the cause.
Steve Turner (InterVarsity Press: May 2001), 131 pages.
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Imagine art that is risky, complex and subtle! Imagine music, movies, books and paintings of the highest quality! Imagine art that permeates society, challenging conventional thinking and standard morals to their core! Imagine that it is all created by Christians! This is the bold vision of Steve Turner, someone who has worked among artists--many Christian and many not — for three decades. He believes Christians should confront society and the church with the powerful impact art can convey. He believes art can faithfully chronicle the lives of ordinary people and equally express the transcendence of God. He believes that Christians should be involved in every level of the art world and in every media. Yet art and artists have not always been held in high esteem by conservative Christians. Art rarely seems to communicate clear propositional truth, rarely deals with certainties and absolutes. And the lifestyles of artists too frequently seem at odds with the gospel. So the arts have often been discouraged among Christians. Throughout this stimulating book, however, Turner builds a compelling case against such a perspective. He shows that if Jesus is Lord of all of life and creation, then art is not out of bounds for Christians. Rather it can and should be a way of expressing faith in creatively, beautifully, truthfully arranged words, sounds and sights. This stirring call is must reading for every Christian who has been drawn to the arts or been influenced by them.
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Phil is a pastor, college instructor in philosphy and ethics, theology, and spiritual formation, book lover and hiker. His blog, according to its tagline, is "a set of reflections on the contemporary church, culture, Christian philosophy, and doctrine". Recent posts include the whether doctors have the right to not perform abortions as a matter of conscience, Newsweek's cover story on the demise of America as a Christian nation, a review of the Apologetics Study Bible, and President Obama's honorary degree from Notre Dame.
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The Center for Naturalism promotes science-based naturalism as a comprehensive worldview - a rational and fulfilling alternative to faith-based religions and other varieties of supernaturalism. The under-standing that we are fully natural beings is the foundation for an effective approach to personal and social concerns, and highlights our intimate connection to the awe-inspiring universe described by science. Through its educational activities and initiatives, the Center develops constructive applications of naturalism, supports progressive social policy, and in collaboration with other secular groups, helps to build a community of naturalists."
Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing? (Clarendon Press: 2004), pp. 76-7.
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The idea that an ultimate source of being and becoming is to be found in the purely mental and non-physical is at odds with the conception of mind espoused by most contemporary philosophers. It is commonly held that mental states are to be characterized in terms of their causal role, but since such states are thought to be states of the brain, there is no lessening of a dependence on the physical. This is not a position I wish to invoke. It is doubtless true that we could not believe, desire, or intend without a brain, but any attempt to construe belief and the rest as states of that organ involves a serious mismatch between the psychological concepts and physical reality. Beliefs can be obsessive, unwavering, irrational, or unfounded, but nothing inside anyone's head answers to such descriptions.
Timothy Williamson (Oxford University Press: Dec 2002), 352 pages.
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Knowledge and its Limits presents a systematic new conception of knowledge as a kind of mental stage sensitive to the knower's environment. It makes a major contribution to the debate between externalist and internalist philosophies of mind, and breaks radically with the epistemological tradition of analyzing knowledge in terms of true belief. The theory casts new light on such philosophical problems as scepticism, evidence, probability and assertion, realism and anti-realism, and the limits of what can be known. The arguments are illustrated by rigorous models based on epistemic logic and probability theory. The result is a new way of doing epistemology and a notable contribution to the philosophy of mind. ~ Synopsis at Barnes and Noble
Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (Tenth Planet Productions: August 17, 2008).
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The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget represents the apotheosis of a certain brand of comedy, that brand sold on the idea that it is outrageously funny to say whatever is most scandalous to public modesty and morality. One might have expected that the proceedings were intended to honor Saget in some way, with some good natured ribbing of course. No such luck. In the course of this roast, Saget is insinuated for raping and killing a stranger, of voracious homosexuality, and of bedding high schoolers and of intercourse and fellatio with his very underaged costars, the Olsen twins. His and Cloris Leachman's genitalia are as often as not the punchline. Saget's rap for being notoriously unfunny on Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos is also well lambasted, most cleverly by Norm MacDonald whose set is a dreadful series of jokes of the sort that were Saget's bread and butter. "Old", "fat" and "ugly" jokes round out the material. Saget's roasters, the insult comics, receive as well as they give, each of them the recipient of similar barbs. Saget is renowned for being the antithesis of his television persona, of being exceedingly raunchy himself, so the nature of this roast was to be expected. But apart from the harping on his years of delivering bad jokes — "You are a vortex of artistic compromise." — the roast doesn't evince even a clue about the man Bob Saget. The insults are almost entirely generic. Virtually anyone could have been the butt of the jokes on offer. The roasters, including John Stamos, are presented as Saget's longtime colleagues and friends, but it would seem he is as much of a cardboard cutout to them as he was to his television audience. Each roaster's set concludes with a "sincere moment", but the most we get from these moments are platitudes and a hug. It goes without saying that Bob Saget's Roast would suffice as Exhibit A in any lament at the coarsening of society. That, however, is not my interest here. Rather, my question is, Does it Blend? That is to say, Is it funny? Or, more specifically, Why is this brand of offense and offensiveness funny? Be advised. What follows is clinical but uncensored.