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Why Religious Experience Fails as Evidence
Philosophy of Religion

Why Religious Experience Fails as Evidence

Subjective certainty is not evidence—why mystical experience cannot ground public truth claims about the divine

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SacredSkeptic
9 min read
Why Prayer Studies Consistently Disappoint Believers
Philosophy of Religion

Why Prayer Studies Consistently Disappoint Believers

Controlled studies tested whether prayer heals—the consistent results reveal more about belief than about God

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
8 min read
Why Fine-Tuning Arguments Miss Their Target
Philosophy of Religion

Why Fine-Tuning Arguments Miss Their Target

The universe looks calibrated for life, but the inference to a designer collapses under philosophical scrutiny

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
8 min read
How Secular Grief Processing Honors Reality
Philosophy of Religion

How Secular Grief Processing Honors Reality

Finding genuine comfort in mortality's finality without supernatural consolation

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SacredSkeptic
6 min read
How Naturalism Answers Ultimate Questions
Philosophy of Religion

How Naturalism Answers Ultimate Questions

Naturalistic worldviews offer substantive answers to questions about origins, purpose, and meaning often claimed as religion's exclusive territory.

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SacredSkeptic
6 min read
How Scripture's Origin Story Undermines Its Authority
Philosophy of Religion

How Scripture's Origin Story Undermines Its Authority

The Bible wasn't delivered from heaven—it was assembled through centuries of human composition, political selection, and imperfect copying.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
How the Cosmological Argument Self-Destructs
Philosophy of Religion

How the Cosmological Argument Self-Destructs

The classic argument for God's existence contains contradictions that dismantle it from within

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
6 min read
Why Arguments from Morality Fail for Theism
Philosophy of Religion

Why Arguments from Morality Fail for Theism

How the argument from moral facts to divine existence falls apart at every step.

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SacredSkeptic
6 min read
How Religious Moderation Enables Extremism
Philosophy of Religion

How Religious Moderation Enables Extremism

Mainstream believers may unintentionally provide the epistemic foundation that extremists need to justify violence.

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
8 min read
Why Pascal's Wager Is a Losing Bet
Philosophy of Religion

Why Pascal's Wager Is a Losing Bet

Pascal's famous argument for faith collapses under the weight of competing gods, involuntary belief, and a suspicious view of divine priorities.

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
6 min read
The Consciousness Problem Dualism Cannot Solve
Philosophy of Religion

The Consciousness Problem Dualism Cannot Solve

Dualism doesn't explain consciousness—it relocates the mystery while creating new unsolvable problems.

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
6 min read
Why Near-Death Experiences Don't Prove Afterlife
Philosophy of Religion

Why Near-Death Experiences Don't Prove Afterlife

Profound experiences near death reveal the brain's capacity for construction, not consciousness surviving beyond it.

brown walrus in rule of thirds photography
SacredSkeptic
6 min read
Why Historical Jesus Claims Are More Uncertain Than Presented
Philosophy of Religion

Why Historical Jesus Claims Are More Uncertain Than Presented

The evidence for Jesus is thinner and more problematic than scholarly confidence suggests

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SacredSkeptic
6 min read
Secular Sources of Meaning Religion Cannot Monopolize
Philosophy of Religion

Secular Sources of Meaning Religion Cannot Monopolize

How human connection, creative contribution, and finitude generate robust meaning without supernatural foundations or cosmic validation.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
The Secular Case for Ritual and Community
Philosophy of Religion

The Secular Case for Ritual and Community

Why ritual, community, and contemplative practice don't require supernatural beliefs to deliver their psychological benefits

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
How Cognitive Science Explains Religious Belief
Philosophy of Religion

How Cognitive Science Explains Religious Belief

Cognitive science reveals why human minds generate religious beliefs—and why those beliefs tell us more about ourselves than about reality.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
How Secular Ethics Grounds Morality Without God
Philosophy of Religion

How Secular Ethics Grounds Morality Without God

Discover how philosophical analysis reveals robust moral foundations that stand entirely independent of divine commands or supernatural assumptions.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
The Problem of Religious Diversity No Believer Can Escape
Philosophy of Religion

The Problem of Religious Diversity No Believer Can Escape

Why the accident of your birth determines your deepest convictions—and what this reveals about religious truth claims

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
Why Humean Skepticism Still Devastates Miracle Claims
Philosophy of Religion

Why Humean Skepticism Still Devastates Miracle Claims

Why rational belief in miracles remains impossible even with modern evidence and sincere witnesses

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
The Hidden Atheism in Theodicy Responses
Philosophy of Religion

The Hidden Atheism in Theodicy Responses

Sophisticated defenses of God against evil succeed only by describing a deity most believers wouldn't recognize—or worship.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
Why 'God of the Gaps' Arguments Always Retreat
Philosophy of Religion

Why 'God of the Gaps' Arguments Always Retreat

How invoking divine explanation for scientific mysteries has failed consistently for centuries, revealing a fundamental flaw in supernatural inference from ignorance.

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SacredSkeptic
7 min read
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