Naturalism, Liberalism, And The Religious And The Atheists w/ Stephen Law

Hi, everybody! Today, I am releasing an interview with Dr. Stephen Law. He 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 atheists when it comes to the problem of evil and the Evil-God challenge.

https://youtu.be/gDfSMv2BHzg

Link to podcast version (Anchor): https://bit.ly/2GuS32f