The Universe in Essays

Question - "On the issue of the Bible being divinely inspired, how do we know it wasn't meant to be a story to teach children to be good, and not truly god's word?" - Louis. Answer - I am going to use your question, Louis, as an opportunity to develop my thoughts on the gospels alone. Trying to tackle the whole Bible is too big a task for one article. Indeed, whole libraries have been written on the subject! So let us narrow our focus to the four biblical gospels.

Abstract: Did the spread of Christianity lead to the downfall of Rome, and the corresponding "Dark Ages" that lasted for the next thousand years? Bruce and I exchange a few thoughts on this frequently heard claim. Throughout the dialogue, I flesh out two reasons to conclude that the Christian religion, whatever else it might have given to Rome, did not lead to its destruction: (1) the Byzantine empire was predominately Christian, and yet endured for a thousand years, and (2) Christianity is a missionary religion.  My friend Louis and I engage in a few final remarks. Written: July 2015.

Jack  - My claim was not that the majority of philosophers were atheistic moral realists. I said atheism and moral realism were both majority positions, and that many of the main contemporary defenders of moral realism are atheists. There are clearly a great many philosophers who are both atheists and moral realists, if the two were incompatible I would really expect the experts to have noticed.