Joe Schmid and his beautiful laser eyes  Agnostic philosopher Joe Schmid, who owns a blog and a YouTube channel called Majesty of Reason, presents what he calls a “ simple, confessional argument against Classical Theism ” in one of his recent blog posts. The argument is as follows: 1.      If classical theism (CT) is true, then for any x, if x is not God, is created by God. 2.      If CT is true, then God is free to create or not create. 3.      If (i) God is free to create or not create, and (ii) for any x, if x is not God, is created by God, then for any x, if x is not God, x is contingent (i.e. can be absent from reality). 4.      So, if CT, is true then for any x, if x is not God, x is contingent. [1-3] 5.      There is some x such that x is not God and x is not contingent. 6.      So, CT is false [4-5]   Schmid is correct in pointing ou...

  2 days ago, Fr. Gregory Pine, OP, a Dominican priest and philosopher/theologian, debated Benjamin Watkins of the Real Atheology podcast/blog . Here are some of my on-the-spot, post-debate thoughts: - Seeing Fr. Pine debate and how he articulated his position (especially on how he "combined" the first 3 ways of Aquinas into a single "argument") is the final straw for me: I WILL enter the Dominican order. That's an irreversible decision now (at least it seems to me at this time) - I appreciate the fact that Ben Watkins argued for the apparent incoherence of Classical Theism (i.e. how it poses problems with Divine Freedom/modal collapse and Divine Knowledge) against Fr. Pine's position. It's very rare for "Youtube Atheists" to do that. Ben's argumentation is a breath of fresh air for the Atheist internet movement, after many years of New Atheist dominance. - I just want to express a minor dissatisfaction I had with Fr. Pine's posi...