Uncertainty – Details, episodes & analysis

Phil Halper joins me to discuss his forthcoming book, Battle of the Big Bang: New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins, and whether William Lane Craig misrepresents the empirical evidence for a beginning of the universe.

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To pre-order Phil's book, click here. To watch Phil's first appearance on the Majesty of Reason critiquing Dr. Craig, click here. To view Phil's second appearance on the Majesty of Reason replying to Dr. Craig's response, click here.

To watch Phil's documentary critiquing the kalam cosmological argument, click here. To view Phil's reply to Craig's response, click here.

This video, titled with tongue in cheek, did not result from an 'official' survey of any kind. Instead, I asked my YouTube subscribers what they thought were the strongest objections to the fine-tuning argument. I discuss those objections in this video. Maybe they're the best ones, maybe not - but they are worth taking seriously, and they are ones that I have thought about myself for some time: (1) so what?, (2) normalizability, (3) principle of indifference, and (4) scientific anti-realism. I trust my discussion will prove helpful in thinking through these issues.

Joe Schmid joins me to discuss the best arguments for God's existence, and the best arguments against. We explored several nuances of the cosmological argument (for God) and the argument from gratuitous animal suffering (against God). To access Joe's YouTube channel, Majesty of Reason, click here. To see a list of Joe's publications, click here.

On September 24th, I (virtually) attended and spoke at my first professional philosophy conference, "Christian Philosophy Facing Naturalism," held at Ignatianum University in Cracow, Poland. My talk was titled, "Theistic Multiverses and the Fine-Tuning Argument." My aim was to examine philosopher Michael Rota's contention that even if a multiverse exists, we should still infer that a cosmic designer was responsible for the fine-tuning of the universe. I ultimately reject Rota's case for this provocative conclusion.

Dr. Graham Oppy, professor of philosophy at Monash University and author of the wide-ranging exploring of arguments for God's existence Arguing about Gods published by Cambridge University Press, joins me to discuss the relationship between science and religion, morality and God's existence, the future of philosophy of religion, and what the point of philosophy is in the first place. For more information about Oppy and a list of his publications, click here.

Dr. Max Baker-Hytch, tutor in philosophy at Oxford, joins me to discuss his recent published research on near-death experiences (NDEs) and their evidential significance, whether they provide reason to believe in an afterlife, and the strengths and weaknesses of natural explanations for these remarkable phenomena. To access Max's publication on NDEs, click ⁠here⁠. A compendium of Max's publications, click ⁠here⁠.

Hans Halvorson, professor of philosophy at Princeton, joins me to discuss the relationship between God and science, science and philosophy, and the role that philosophy has to play in our world today.

Alex Malpass, former lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol become software engineer, joins me to debate the kalam cosmological argument: the argument that because the universe began to exist, there must be a Creator that brought it into being. Malpass is one of the most articulate and careful critics of this line of thought, so it was a pleasure to discuss it with him. To access Alex's paper discussing the 'successive addition argument' against an infinite past, 'All the Time in the World,' click here. For a list of Alex's publications, click here. For Alex's blog with loads of good philosophical content, click here.

I discuss a new kind of fine-tuning argument for God's existence with Dr. Robin Collins, professor of philosophy at Messiah University, one centered on the remarkable ability of human beings to discover the universe around us. Were the constants of physics altered in the smallest way, our capacity to understand the universe, our very ability to do science in the first place, would be remarkable diminished, if not irradicated entirely. Why, then, do the laws of physics take on these delicately balanced values that allow us to discover scientific truths? With Collins as my interlocutor, I take the chance to press objections that Neil Manson raised in our previous interview - philosophy in real time! For more information about Robin, as well as a list of his publications, click here.

In my first ever interview for the show, I discuss and debate the fine-tuning argument with philosopher Neil Manson, a professor at the University of Mississippi. We discuss several lesser examined issues with the fine-tuning argument: how we could ever know what kind of universe God would likely create, theistic versus naturalistic multiverses, and whether, in the end, fine-tuning gives us any reason to think that God exists. For an online repository of Neil Manson's publications, click here.