Recently we placed an advertisement on Facebook for contributors to MandM. We were looking for people with some training in analytic philosophy who are careful, articulate and interesting writers who can contribute to MandM in a complementary style to ours.
Those we have chosen to add to our team should bring some variety to our pages and help us to contribute better towards an online “community where in we build upon the things we have in common and explore the things that make us different.”1
Our new contributors are:
André Z is a student in the final year of undergraduate degrees in arts (philosophy) and science at the University of Auckland. André is particularly interested in the relationship between science and Christian faith and the challenges which the scientific project and our intuitive understanding of persons pose for naturalism. He intends to undertake post-graduate studies in science.
Theologically André would describe himself as an evangelical Anglican. He is active in his local church and the wider Diocese. He is involved in a number of student clubs including leadership of a Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship-affiliated group. He has been known to occasionally contribute to ‘The Anglican’ magazine as well as his personal blog MetaEquilibrium and Thinking Matters.
Andrew is a philosophy major at Auckland University with a particular interest in philosophical theology. His present study focuses around various cosmological and meta-ethical arguments for theism.
Theologically, he’d describe himself as Evangelical but agnostic as to the question of Reformed or Arminian soteriology. A few of the thinkers who influence Andrew are: John Calvin, William Lane Craig, Paul Copan, Alvin Plantinga and Chris Tucker.
Andrew’s other interests other interests include sailing, hiking and socializing and he too has been an occasional contributor to Thinking Matters.
Machine Philosophy was first recognized in a graduate philosophy of religion textbook when he was a freshman in college, for being as familiar with the thought of a leading philosopher of religion, “as any living person”. He earned a BA in Philosophy and is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy.
Machine Philosophy has edited textbooks in the philosophy of logic and classical Indian metaphysics. This year, he published a book of redacted quotations and is now working on a book on how the criterial assumptions of atheism imply a theistic God.
His interests include atheism, theism, philosophy of mind, self-reference, naturalistic ethics, materialism, epistemology, a priori knowledge and artificial intelligence.
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Please join us in welcoming our friends to MandM and keep an eye out for their blog posts.
UPDATE:
We have also added John Tertullian to the team:
John Tertullian (JT) posts regularly at the blog Contra Celsum. “John Tertullian” is a pseudonym, inspired by the Church Father, Tertullian who trenchantly emphasized the conflict between the Christian faith and all forms of unbelief. Unbelief was always religious; it was always idolatrous. So, Tertullian famously declaimed, “What has Jerusalem to do with Athens!”
JT has a couple of post-grad degrees, for which he is thankful. But, in truth, he finds the Scriptures to be more profound and instructive than a million books. And our Lord is peerless and His Kingdom has been found to be a pearl of great price.
[1] Joel Watts The Future of Bibilo/Theoblogging? The Community Blog
Tags: André Z · Andrew · Machine Philosophy16 Comments
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
What about me?
Is your Andre a YEC? 🙂
Thanks so much Matt and Madz! it’s quite an honor really.
To answer your question Grant, no, Andre (so far as i know) is not a YEC
What is a YEC?
And Richard, please, someone of your outstanding calibre can do a lot better than MandM.
Mads,
A “YEC” is a “Young Earth Creationist”.
I don’t know where he stands on that subject then, André are you out there?
How about a post on transhumanism? That is one of my interests at the moment.
Yeah nah, I’m here, looking forward to contributing – and not currently a YEC.
Sadly I also know nothing about transhumanism.
Yea Andre, any talk with Christians over something that does not concern abortion, homosexuality or defending their faith it soon becomes pretty apparent that they know nothing. Perhaps my article would do some good around here.
Backed the self up recently Richard?
Richard,
It’s curious you should say that Christians know nothing beyond defending their faith and arguing about homosexuality.
My experience (as a Christian) tells me the total opposite. That Christians know plenty about other (more secular) aspects of life, but only a few know much about actually defending their faith.
I haven’t had much experience regarding either abortion or homosexuality. If you ask my friends, most of them are likely to assure you I’m at least as well educated and knowledgable as they are about the world in general. But of course, being charitable, I’ll assume that (while your statement seemed rather generic), you couldn’t presuming, Richard, to be able to comment authoritatively on how much someone you don’t know at all knows.
I didn’t realise transhumanism was much more than a secular pipedream, though I suppose it has its respectable claims as well as its fringe, like most ideologies.
Ah .. not a YEC, eh. Well, we’ll soon beat that out of you. 😉
So does the blog need to be renamed to MandMandAandAandMP ?
Also, is Machine Philosophy his real name? Is he really a machine? Or was his mother Mrs Philosophy just a bit too creative in choosing him a name?
Richard, funny you say that because an there is an evangelical theologian at the university of auckland who did his PhD in transhumanism.
An evangelical theologian at Auckland University?!?!?! I don’t believe it! XD