Issues
Issue 99: November/December 2013
EDITORIAL
Gadzooks!
by Rick Lewis
NEWS
News: November/December 2013
Arthur Danto • Gunfight at the IK Corral • 3 million Welsh become organ donors • Pope says atheists may not be damned — News reports by Sue Roberts
PROBLEMS OF BELIEF & UNBELIEF
Does God Exist?
William Lane Craig says there are good reasons for thinking that He does.
Huxley’s Agnosticism
Van Harvey reflects on Huxley’s and Clifford’s reasons for not believing.
Theism, History and Experience
Timothy Chappell argues that standard arguments against God miss the point.
Moral Manipulation & the Problem of Evil
Jimmy Alfonso Licon challenges a traditional Christian explanation of suffering.
ARTICLES
Does Psychiatry Medicalize Normality?
Ronald Pies MD argues that it doesn’t.
Thoughts on Oughts
Stephen Anderson reflects on responses to Hume’s argument that we can’t derive moral duties from facts.
Has Philosophy Lost Its Way?
John Lachs thinks it can get back on track.
What Did Mary Know?
Marina Gerner on a thought experiment about consciousness.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Daphne Hampson on the man many consider to be the father of existentialism.
INTERVIEWS
Simon Blackburn
Simon Blackburn is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a member of the Humanist Philosophers’ Group, a former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and currently a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rick Lewis asks him about his atheism.
LETTERS
Letters
Camus Is Dead, Long Live Camus! • The Mice of Sisyphus • Epicurean Upgrades • Review Review • Multiverse Probabilities • Selfless Responses • Developing Intelligence • Moral Relativism Is Intelligible • Not Hitler’s Philosophers • Card-Carrying Clairvoyant
COLUMNS
That Was The Year That Was
by Joel Marks
What Hard Problem?
Our philosophical science correspondent Massimo Pigliucci asks.
Seeing & Believing
Raymond Tallis looks for the missing link between them.
REVIEWS
The Bible by Various
Our reviewer Les Reid finds The Holy Bible to be wholly unreliable.
The Big Questions: God & God: All That Matters both by Mark Vernon
Mark Vernon’s agnosticism is knowledgeably considered by Ian Robinson.
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Dharmender Dhillon asks what happened to the revolutionary potential of hip hop.
CARTOONS
Chris Madden’s Cartoon
by Chris Madden
Bill Stott’s Cartoon
by Bill Stott
Vadim Dozmorov’s Cartoon
by Vadim Dozmorov
Simon & Finn
by Melissa Felder
FICTION
Be Not Afeared
by Louise R. Chapman
The Skeptibot
Kevin Heinrich introduces the ultimate in automated thinking. Or does he?