Rushing Into Fake News

Just had to post this story as a classic example of bad believing. (AKA, bad epistemology.) Football coach Mike Leach allows himself to be suckered in by “fake news,” and compounds the error by broadcasting it to thousands in his twitter feed. Ironically, Leach has a brilliant offensive mind when it come to football. He probably uses “fakes” (deception) in his plays all the time, and expects the defense to fall for them. Let this serve to encourage you to always proceed with extreme caution when processing things on the internet. Especially conspiracy theories. Continue reading Rushing Into Fake News

Should I Change What I Believe?

In the summer of 2017, I visited the University of Oxford and walked the flower-covered grounds of Magdalen (oddly pronounced “Maudlin”) College. I imagined myself retracing the steps of C. S. Lewis as he first wrestled with the idea of faith in God. He describes his conversion this way: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In … Continue reading Should I Change What I Believe?

Is Faith Irrational?

I came across this wonderful post by Liz Jackson, a Notre Dame PhD candidate in philosophy. She argues for the rationality of faith by taking an argument against her view and showing that it fails. Of course, this doesn’t “prove” anything, but it does undermine several common attacks made against the rationality of faith. I’d be interested to hear from skeptical readers whether they think Jackson succeeds, or if they have an alternative way to argue for faith’s irrationality. One point that stands out to me is that skeptics shouldn’t just define faith as irrational. She explains why in the post. … Continue reading Is Faith Irrational?