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Dallas Willard on Christianity, Magic, and the Supernatural

Dallas Willard on Christianity, Magic, and the Supernatural

Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, asks this question in his excellent book Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God: How does a life in which one speaks the creative word of God differ from a life of voodoo, magic, and superstition? Here is part of his answer (the section begins on page 137): The word magic in this context refers to … the attempt to influence the actual course of events, as distinct…

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Explaining Souls

Explaining Souls

In response to one part of a comment from Geoff Arnold: Geoff, the following is apparently your expansion of an assertion you had made earlier of “profound metaphysical problems” with the existence of the soul. [The “Dan” Geoff is speaking of here is the prominent philosopher of mind, Daniel Dennett.] I remember attending a class with Dan in which he was discussing Descartes. There has always been this big problem with the causal relationship between a putative “soul” and the…

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Four Puzzlers from Michael Shermer

Four Puzzlers from Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer on why science and religion can never unite: I don’t think a union between science and religion is possible for a logical reason, but by this same logic I conclude that science cannot contradict religion. Here’s why: A is A. Reality is real. To attempt to use nature to prove the supernatural is a violation of A is A. It is an attempt to make reality unreal. A cannot also be non-A. Nature cannot also be non-Nature. Naturalism…

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