Answers In Reason

Are Religious People More Stupid Than Atheists? We atheists have a number of things in our toolbelts, and one of those is memes. Many of these memes are oversimplifications or just flat out wrong, so I thought I would create a series to address some of our worst memes and explain why they are so bad. I often hear atheists claim religious people or theists are dumb. This is a terrible take. Many of us atheists seem to pride ourselves on... Read More... Read More

Who’d win the Fight, Santa or God? One of the worst comparisons I see us atheists make is comparing God to Santa (or any other mythological character). I understand the reason comparisons like this start. Many of us atheists regard both Santa and god as myths, which is fine, but what is not fine is that is where the comparison ought to stop. This podcast examines the issues with the comparisons, and why we shouldn’t use this argument seriously. “Santa vs God” – SciPhi... Read More... Read More

Is Atheism the Null Hypothesis? It is common to hear folks claim Atheism is the null hypothesis. In this SciPhi Short we will be going over what the null hypothesis is with a few examples. We will start by covering off what a hypothesis is, moving on to the null hypothesis itself, and finishing up with examinations of atheism and if it could be the null hypothesis under any definition. The Null Hypothesis: How it Relates to Atheism and God... Read More... Read More

Are we Really Born Atheists? We atheists have a number of things in our toolbelts, and one of those is memes.  Many of these memes are oversimplifications or just flat out wrong, so I thought I would create a series to address some of our worst memes and explain why they are so bad. Something that shows a lack of epistemological understanding is the claim we are all born atheists. An atheist is one who ascribes to atheism. Atheism is polysemous,... Read More... Read More

What does it mean to be rational? It is common to hear that all beliefs are irrational, but is that really the case? In this SciPhi Short we will be briefly examining rationality and how it relates to belief. We will be covering: – What is a Belief – What is Rationality – States of Rationality: arational, irrational, rational Rationality: How Can a Belief Be Rational? – The Video 00:00 – Intro 00:40 – Rationality PPT Starts 00:43 – Hello... Read More... Read More

Conclusively Atheist? I see a lot of memes flying about the internet. Some are great, some are funny, and others are just terrible. As an atheist, I find some of our atheistic memes absolutely awful so I thought I would start a series called “Bad Atheist Memes” or “BAM!” to go over the memes, explain the issues and hopefully convince other atheists why we should stop using them. Our first meme to analyse is “Atheism is a Conclusion, Not a... Read More... Read More

Hume’s take on Testimony and Miracles! After our chat with Bearded Heretic and his take on the problems with testimony from a psychological perspective, we return to the topic through a different lens. We shall start with Hume on miracles and his theory on testimony and see where the conversation takes us. We also have a special guest joining us from Twitter: Alistair Ware. There’s also an unedited version of this podcast with an extra half hour’s chat at the... Read More... Read More

What is the Gap? Tonight we return to our discussions on the philosophy of mind. We often hear that physicalism cannot account for consciousness. That there is a gap between the physical explanations and the phenomenal experience. Come join us as we explore the ‘explanatory gap’! What does it mean to explain something? What is the explanatory gap? More p-Zombies! More Mary! The duality of experience and realisation Physicalist/Materialist responses to the gap Mind the Gap the Video... Read More

What is a Belief? Belief is often a hot topic and a word that is sometimes said with some distaste by many of us atheists. This SciPhi Short hopes to clear up any misconceptions about the word belief, provide a number of definitions, and give examples of how it is used. The SciPhi Shortz Video on Belief 00:00 – Intro 00:54 – Slideshow Starts 01:04 – Common misunderstandings of Belief 01:25 – What is a Belief? 01:51 – Something accepted... Read More... Read More

Evidence is often a hot topic, and one frequently misunderstood. I covered off a number of different types of evidence before in the post Dirty Words: Belief, Faith and Evidence and we have done a small podcast on the matter too BoPping to The Evidence. Even still, sometimes it is better to see if we can approach things in another way. As such, I present my first SciPhi Short. SciPhi Shortz? The idea of the SciPhi Shortz is a quick and informative video... Read More... Read More

The Truth is Out There! What is truth? How can we know if something is true? What is a truth-apt statement? Do all statements hold a truth value? How does truth relate to morality? Can we have a subjective truth? In this stream, we hope to cover off these questions and examine a few theories of truth. There are actually quite a few theories of truth, but the most important ones are: Correspondence theory Coherence theory Semantic Theory Pragmatic Theory... Read More... Read More

The Rationality Thesis We take a look at the rationality thesis and delve into the rationality debate asking; are humans rational creatures that make performance errors or irrational creatures that sometimes demonstrate rationality? Dave talks about slides in this stream which you can find here: To Be or Not Be Rational – The Video This Podcast was from our Live Video Stream. If you prefer to watch than listen, check out the below: 00:00 – Intro 06:05 – Start of... Read More... Read More

Testified! Today we will be looking at testimony, and whether or not it is worth anything.   Are our memories to be trusted, or do they contain lots of false information? Can people create fake memories just by using words? How good are people at remembering other’s faces?  We will also be coving off a pet peeve of Bearded Heretic, and that is people getting the Null Hypothesis Wrong   Short Version of Tonight’s Topics:   False memory Leading questions  Facial... Read More... Read More

The Paradox of Negative Emotions Disgust, Fear and Sadness are all negative emotions we usually avoid.Why would rational agents want to seek out things that cause them such distress? We embark on a journey through the paradox of negative emotions to gain a deeper understanding of this very thing. Disgustingly Enjoyable – The Video To check out the full live stream and keep up with the chat check out:... Read More

Philosophy of Emotion, how sweet it is! Are emotions just chemical reactions? Or can we consider them more than that? Come join us for a basic introduction to the philosophy of emotion! We are also joined last minute by our friend Bearded Heretic (Luke). We look at emotion both through the lens of Philosophy and Psychology in what ends up being an incredibly entertaining show with many segues into annoyances we have had on social media recently. Sweet Emotions –... Read More... Read More

Another Video Review? Yes, sorry, another one. Having been incredibly busy we thought we would do another video review. We thought that perhaps Haitham Talaat might have produced a better video than his last. It turned out worse. At least in episode 2 he seemed to be trying to engage in an open dialogue but was just quite mistaken in places, it seems that he is just preaching to a crowd and not actually willing to consider what others actually... Read More... Read More

Artificial Ethics We venture into the world of AI and consider the ethical implications and applications. Will our future overlords be moral and just? We will be considering how morality is used in the automated world from now and into the future, looking at various thought experiments, and pondering ethical culpability and responsibility when things go wrong! Topics Our topics on Artificial Intelligence and Ethics will include (but not be limited to) What do we mean by Morality (short version,... Read More... Read More

Rationality and Hammers? We come back round to rationality, as well as hammers! What do hammers have to do with rationality? Tune in to find out! The conversation will include, but will not be limited to: What is Rationality? How does Rationality relate to Reason? Are there any tools that can help you with rationality? Without those tools, can you be rational? Is there a limit to rationality? Bonus AMA and guest stars at the end! The Bonus AMA As... Read More... Read More

Reviews From time to time Dave and I do reviews, be it of sites, situations, podcasts, books, or videos. We find it a nice change of pace and a way to gain a different perspective and test our knowledge. Sometimes the person/people we review communicate with us and we strike up a great dialogue and learn from each other, which is always our hope. Our Review of ‘Criticism of Atheism & Proving the Validity of Islam | E2 How did... Read More... Read More

Moral Particularism and Value Pluralism Do particular circumstances affect the moral value of an action? Are there multiple values to assess when looking at moral judgements? Are there any particular standards we should base morality on or is it just what we feel is right at the time? Joi@kriss, @trolleydave and @davidian for tonight’s ethical discussion in which we explore moral particularism and value pluralism. Moral Particularism and Value Pluralism – The Video This podcast was origionally a live video... Read More... Read More

Moral Realism Moral Realism states that there are some moral truths that are agent independent. Whilst not all moral judgements are necessarily objective, some are, at least under moral realism. We explore if morality can indeed be objective as well as answering questions and statements about moral relativism, subjectivism, and discussing truth-apt statements. Objective Morality!? Be Ral(ist)! – The Video Our SciPhi Podcasts are usually live YouTube Streams. If you prefer to watch rather than listen, here’s the video:... Read More

Evidence and The Burden of Proof Evidence and the Burden of Proof are commonly talked about in discussions… Unfortunately, many people misunderstand these things so we hope to clear things up! In this stream, we cover: What is Evidence Claims of “not evidence” What is the Burden of Proof? Other Terms for the Burden of Proof. What the burden of proof applies to and when. Articles mentioned in the Stream: IEP: https://iep.utm.edu/epi-just/ James Cargile – On The Burden Of Proof:... Read More... Read More

Is Mental Illness Real? We are joined by Bearded Heretic to discuss mental illness. Our conversation will include, but is not limited to: What is mental illness? The medical model of mental health Neurosis vs. Psychosis Everyday behaviour and mental illness Other models of mental illness Is Mental Illnes Real? – The Video This SciPhi podcast was originally a live Youtube Stream. If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you can find it here:... Read More

What is ‘The Problem of Dirty Hands’? We discuss the problem of dirty hands, no, not the german porn star. We question if it is possible to do the “right thing” by doing the “wrong thing”? We also question if that makes the “wrong thing” a “moral action”. If you hadn’t guessed ‘Dirty Hands’ is a term used in Ethics. We discuss the problem of dirty hands through the lens of a few different moral theories, and if it even... Read More... Read More

‘God is Dead…’ “God is dead, and we have killed him”. Or so Nietzsche’s madman proclaimed. As atheism becomes more popular, Nietzsche’s madman becomes more relevant. We discuss the madman’s words, and how they relate to atheism in the modern-day. Many people misunderstand what Nietzche was trying to say with his ‘God is Dead’ statement, so we hope to clear this up as well as addressing a number of issues, good works, or lack of, being done by theistic and... Read More... Read More

What is the Problem of Other Minds? We take a brief introductory look at solipsism and the problem of other minds, covering some of the popular arguments. You can also follow allong using this handy PDF The Problem of Other Minds – The Video This was originally a LIVE YouTube stream, so, if you prefer watching to listening, you can check it out here:... Read More

Philosophy in the Atheist Community We experience a number of bad takes on philosophy and philosophical concepts/arguments from our fellow atheists and we thought it would be good to do a stream to discuss these and the reasons why. We will be having a general chat about the disdain many atheists have for Philosophy and going through 10 “big ticket” items that we notice patterns of seemingly canned responses about. In case you are not aware, Dave, Phillip and Myself... Read More... Read More

We had a discussion of new atheism and new atheists with Ozymandias Ramses II, both from the conception of the term and what it was meant to describe to how it now often used as an insult to a particular group of atheists who demonstrate a number of negative behaviours. This is one of our early video streams converted in to a podcast, so it is definitely rough around the edges but the ocnversation is still well work listening to.... Read More... Read More

Introduction: Dave and Joe’s Atheism In Part 1 Dave and Joe introduce the series and will discuss different types of atheist. We will also cover different kinds of responses towards questions of a deity existing and some of our poorer arguments, as well as our experience of becoming atheists. Unfortuanately, due to a technical glitch, we lost the second half of the stream, so there is only the first 30 minutes.... Read More

It’s Only Natural! It’s been a while since we had a guest (except for my birthday stream) so it was fantastic to have one of our long term viewers join us and teach us something new. We discuss; what naturalism is, types of naturalism, methodological vs ontological naturalism and the issues with them both. The conversation also evolved through audience participation into areas such as free will and determinism.... Read More

Is there an ‘Official Definition’ of atheism? Atheism is polysemous, so anyone telling you they have the ONLY definition of atheism or those other definitions of atheism are WRONG is completely off the mark. With how language works, any definition of atheism, or any word for that matter, is perfectly valid. There are terms that... Read More... Read More

Free Will is often thought of as one of the “Black Hole” Conversations, and I understand why. When discussing free will we see folks really focused on the libertarian/non-causal free will, even within this stream where we start to talk about different types of free will we can see all of us inadvertently shift back.... Read More... Read More

What Won’t We Believe? With the success of our ‘article reading’ style posts, we thought we would do another. We are going to be discussing Davidian(Joe)’s latest article ‘You won’t believe this… ‘ whilst Joe does the article reading. The article is about belief and logic​. It speaks about how both beliefs and propositions​ are... Read More... Read More

Hello and welcome to the Fresh Air: SciPhi Show – I am sorry to disappoint you but this isn’t a full show but just a little thing I am putting together to explain what we are about. The SciPhi Show is hosted by Dave (TrolleyDave) and Joe (Davidian) of answers-in-reason.com – an atheist site searching... Read More... Read More

What? Beauty Objective? But isn’t it in the eye of the beholder? We all understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which by definition is subjective, but can there be such a thing as an objective standard of beauty? We Cover Off What we mean by Subjective and Objective The Definition of Beauty... Read More... Read More

Return of The Meno Carrying on from Don’t Be So Meno To Me, we discuss how Socrates breaks down Meno’s walls with what has become to be known as ‘The Socratic Method’.... Read More

The Horror of it All For a change of pace to make your heart race, we shall move to aesthetics and horror without grace. We discuss the rationality of an emotional response to fiction. The base of this stream can be found in Dave’s article How Rational Are You?: A Nightmare on Reason St. We... Read More... Read More

Don’t be so Meno! Join us for a discussion about Plato’s Meno… we follow on from last Tuesday’s discussion about discussions: https://youtu.be/18OXYph5EPQ​ Plato not only tries to teach us philosophy but how to do philosophy and dialogue.... Read More

The Psychology of Rejection Humans are a tribal species. It’s in our DNA. We worked together in groups to survive as part of our evolution. We have been guilty of ‘with us or against us’ attitudes for a long time. but how does this affect our beliefs? The outline for tonight’s show can be found... Read More... Read More

Why Discuss Discussions? Conversations online frequently become heated, and no ground is given with nothing learned. In this stream, we hope to expand on the dialectic and eristic argument styles.... Read More

What do you mean ‘If Atheism is True?’ We quite often hear objections from fellow atheists into statements that include ‘If atheism is true’ – on this stream we address why some atheists have an issue with it, and also how this is a valid phrase. It comes down to context and understanding the other... Read More... Read More

No Really, What’s in the Box? Dave recently released an article called ‘What’s in the Box?: A Three-Pound Rabbit‘ We discuss a common argument about evidence and a typical claim that something is ‘not evidence’ unless conclusive. ‘Imagine that someone presents us with a box. That box weighs three pounds. The person presenting us with... Read More

What’s this feedback stream about? Having streamed ‘Morality and Misconceptions’ Found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhLwA…​ We have collated the feedback we have received so far. Some were minor tweaks about the ordering of the slides, which we have amended for the final PDF/Slideshow available here: Morality-Misconceptions-CardsDownload Whilst others were questions and critique – some from very long... Read More

To break up all the serious streams we thought we would have a bit of fun and tie two topics we love together, morality & superheroes. With a few guests, we discuss the morality of superheroes and villains, their powers and actions and cover off topics like: Vigilantes / Vigilante justice Being saved without consentThanos... Read More

In this stream, we return to the realms of science, philosophy of science that is. We will be discussing the idea of scientific revolutions as discussed by Thomas Kuhn. We were also joined for the first time by Kevin Laprise. Want to Watch us Live? You can watch us live on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Answers-in-reasonTwitch: http://twitch.tv/u/davidiantwitchyballsTwitter: https://twitter.com/answersinreason... Read More

Pascal’s wager is a Commonly quoted argument from the 17th Century Philosopher, Theologian and Mathematician, Blaise Pascal, but is there more than folks realise? Tonight we get under the skin of this argument and explore various thoughts and rebuttals. Pascals Wager Pascals wager is an argument often used by theists but one of the key... Read More

Russell’s Teapot and World (aka 5 min Hypothesis) Tonight we continue our thought experiments by looking at Russell’s teapot and world. Russell’s World/The 5 Minute Hypothesis (Analysis of Mind, 1921) ‘There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population... Read More

Thought Experiments Tonight we discuss thought experiments, how they might be answered through different moral theories, and how context might change folks’ answers. We will start with the Trolley Problem, and if we run out of time will cover the rest in a future episode, such as the experience machine or doctor problem. Trolley Problem... Read More

Morality and Misconceptions Morality is a complex topic often discussed on the internet. There are a number of misconceptions surrounding it and as such, I created some “cards” for quick reference based on a number of learnings from a variety of sources and moral theories. W e will be leaning on a number of things... Read More

Tonight Dave and Joe discuss the p-Zombies and Zimboes. Chalmers’ argument 1) It is concevable that there are zombies2) If it is conceivable that there are zombies, it is metaphysically possible that there are zombies.3) If it is metaphysically possible that there are zombies, then consciousness is non-physical.4) Consciousness is non-physical. What is a p-Zombie... Read More

Dave and Joe continue their walk through thought experiments, and tonight they discuss Mary’s Room. Below are Dave’s notes from the night, which might be a nice accompaniment to read whilst the stream is on. Frank Jackson (1982) ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia’ The Mary’s Room thought experiment ‘Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason,... Read More