Longtime friend of ESN Jay Woodham shared this link on Facebook to an “opinionated play-by-play” of the dialogue between Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga and atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett at the recent American Philosophical Association meeting. It’s a very interesting read, both the blog post and the comments, about a discussion between two of the leading philosophers in academia today. The contributor admits his bias towards Plantinga, so read it for what it’s worth, though some of his judgments are countered by commenters. The bloggers does a good job, in my opinion, of putting Plantinga and Dennett in philosophical context for those of us (like myself) who are only familiar with them through the current debates about atheism and naturalism.
Also in the comments is a side conversation about whether or not open belief in God is a hazard to one’s career in philosophy. The commenters are split: some say that it’s not a problem at all, while others strongly recommend keeping your theism under your hat. (My bet is that it strongly depends on your particular department and the attitudes of its faculty.)
BTW, if you are interested in Plantinga, his book Warranted Christian Belief is available for free from the always excellent Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Micheal Hickerson
The former Associate Director for the Emerging Scholars Network, Micheal lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three children and works as a web manager for a national storage and organization company. He writes about work, vocation, and finding meaning in what you do at No Small Actors.
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