•  261
    The Common Consent Argument for the Existence of Nature Spirits
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 98 (2): 334-348. 2020.
    The traditional common consent argument for the existence of God has largely been abandoned—and rightly so. In this paper, I attempt to salvage the strongest version of the argument. Surprisingly,...
  •  218
    Hume on Miracles and UFOs
    Prolegomena: Journal of Philosophy 22 (1): 67-87. 2023.
    A miracle is defined as a violation of or intercession in the laws of nature. Some recent reports of UFO phenomena are such that UFOs may satisfy that definition. In this paper, we ask how Hume’s famous argument in “Of Miracles” relates to UFOs. We argue that his critique fails and that some well corroborated UFO reports are such that they justify a belief in miracles (qua violations of laws of nature).
  •  74
    An Enlightenment Problem for Millianism
    Philosophia 42 (1): 173-179. 2014.
    According to a Millian theory of names, co-referring names are intersubstitutable salva veritate in all contexts, including the that-clauses of belief reports. This leads the Millian to famously argue, among other things, that if Lois Lane believes that Superman can fly then she also believes that Clark Kent can fly. Although the Millian provides an ingenious account that explains our strong anti-substitution intuitions in such cases, this paper argues that the Millian account leads to a new pro…Read more
  •  72
    The naturalism of the sciences
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 67 22-31. 2018.
    The sciences are characterized by what is sometimes called a “methodological naturalism,” which disregards talk of divine agency. In response to those who argue that this reflects a dogmatic materialism, a number of philosophers have offered a pragmatic defense. The naturalism of the sciences, they argue, is provisional and defeasible: it is justified by the fact that unsuccessful theistic explanations have been superseded by successful natural ones. But this defense is inconsistent with the his…Read more
  •  59
    Who’s Who?: Direct Belief and Symmetrical Substitution
    Philosophia 45 (1): 101-105. 2017.
    According to Jonathan Berg’s Theory of Direct Belief, a belief about some individual is an unmediated dyadic relation between the believer and that individual. Berg’s thesis incorporates a Millian account of proper names, and invokes conversational implicature to explain well-known anti-substitution intuitions. In this critical note, I present a puzzle for the Theory of Direct Belief involving symmetrical substitution in false identity belief reports.
  •  57
    Methodological naturalism and its misconceptions
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 82 (3): 321-336. 2017.
    Methodological naturalism has been defended on both intrinsic and pragmatic grounds. Both of these defenses agree that methodological naturalism is a principle of science according to which the scientist ought to eschew talk of causally efficacious disembodied minds. I argue that this is the wrong interpretation of methodological naturalism. Methodological naturalism does not constrain the theories that scientists may conjecture, but how those theories may be justified. On this view, methodologi…Read more
  •  47
    The Methods of Science and Religion is a philosophical analysis of the conflict between science and religion, which challenges the popular, contemporary view that science and religion are complementary worldviews. It exposes their methodological incompatibility and concludes that religious modes of investigation are unreliable.
  •  38
    Animism
    Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2022.
    Animism Animism is a religious and ontological perspective common to many indigenous cultures across the globe. According to an oft-quoted definition from the Victorian anthropologist E. B. Tylor, animists believe in the “animation of all nature”, and are characterized as having “a sense of spiritual beings…inhabiting trees and rocks and waterfalls”. More recently, ethnographers and … Continue reading Animism →
  •  34
    A Refutation of Memory Circularity
    Erkenntnis 87 (5): 2067-2080. 2020.
    It is widely, if not universally, assumed by philosophers that it is impossible to justify the reliability of memory without recourse to the use of memory. This so-called “epistemic circularity” is supposed to infect all attempts to justify memory as a source of knowledge in a noncircular way. In this paper, we argue that advances in cognitive science radically upheave the traditional, folk-psychological conception of memory which epistemologists have hitherto been subjecting to analysis. With a…Read more
  •  24
    Science and Religion: A Conflict of Methods
    Dissertation, University of Otago. 2017.
    There is an epistemological conflict between religion and science. While the claims of science are justified using epistemic methods whose reliability has been corroborated by other people and by other methods, the claims of religion are not justified in the same way. Different methods are used. This thesis offers both a comprehensive description of the distinctive epistemic methods of religion and a philosophical appraisal of the claim that such methods are knowledge-conferring. The methods exp…Read more
  •  18
    Animism and Philosophy of Religion (edited book)
    Springer Verlag. 2022.
    Mainstream philosophy of religion has persistently failed to engage seriously or critically with animist beliefs and practices. The field that is now called "philosophy of religion" could quite easily be renamed "philosophy of theism" with few lecturers on the subject having to radically alter their lecture notes. It is the aim of this volume to rectify that failure and to present animism as a live option among the plethora of religious worldviews. Additionally, the volume will demonstrate how m…Read more
  •  5
    Childhood animism is a phenomenon that has been a focus of study in developmental psychology since Jean Piaget’s groundbreaking studies beginning in 1926. Young children see life, consciousness, and agency in many things that adults take to be lifeless, unconscious objects. If such animistic beliefs are innate in human beings, then what can we conclude about the rationality of animist belief? This chapter argues that the perceived “childishness” of animist belief, far from providing reason to do…Read more
  •  2
    Introduction
    In Animism and Philosophy of Religion, Springer Verlag. pp. 1-22. 2022.
    Nobody cares about animism; well, nobody in philosophy departments at least. Search through the archives of a few of the leading philosophy journals and you will be hard-pressed to find the topic as much as mentioned. Incredibly, this lack of interest persists even within the very subdiscipline that should be most interested: Philosophy of religion. It is an almost paradoxical state of affairs. Most contemporary philosophers of religion find they spend their days debating the existence of a divi…Read more
  • Religious Diversity (atheism)
    In Graham Oppy & Joseph Koterski (eds.), Theism and Atheism: Opposing Viewpoints in Philosophy. pp. 243-257. 2019.
    On what grounds can religious belief be maintained when the chances that one has happenedupon the one true religion are so very low and when it seems that all believers have an equallystrong sense that they are justified in their own beliefs? In answer to the problem, three popularapologetic strategies have often been presented, and in their simplest forms they run as follows:1. All religions are basically right.2. All religions are partly right.3. My religion is right, and the others are wrong.…Read more