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The Modal Ontological Argument

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In prior posts, I've written about how absurd I think this argument is. Its an argument that, if you have no familiarity with philosophical logic, it appears obvious if you are already a theist. If you have any familiarity with this kind of argumentation, it's quite dubious. This polarizing nature is interesting to me because I think it highlights problems with using philosophical argumentation to persuade anyone of anything under conditions of deep disagreement (and generally, the uses of argumentation by rational agents with differing hinge commitments ). The paper " Wittgenstein and the logic of deep disagreement " is where my thoughts are currently with regard to this question; specifically with respect to arguments for the existence of a god. Are we fundamentally disagreeing about  arational beliefs , and if so, what is the relationship between hinge commitments and trust ? Are theistic beliefs knowledge-apt beliefs or folk-beliefs ? This is an active area of...
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How to Create a Christian

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Overview This essay started as a numbers problem that turned into a family story. On paper, the United States does not look like a place where Christianity is constantly “winning converts” in the way Christian testimonials and apologetics often imply. The largest, best-known population surveys describe something closer to churn than conquest: lots of switching overall, but a lopsided net flow out of Christianity . Pew’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study finds that 35% of U.S. adults have switched their religious identity since childhood. ( Pew Research Center ) And when you look at the balance sheet, the asymmetry is hard to miss: 21.9% of U.S. adults are “former Christians,” while only 3.6% are Christians who were raised something else —a roughly six-to-one ratio in the direction of exit. ( Pew Research Center ) The same pattern shows up in the broader “religion vs. none” accounting: 20.2% were raised in a religion and are now unaffiliated, versus 3.5% raised unaffiliated who n...
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