On Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00 pm at Bernardsville Public Library (1 Anderson Hill Road), Dr. Philip Walsh will present the next topic in his series, “Thinking Out Loud: A Philosophical Perspective on Contemporary Issues.” His subject: “Two classic proofs for the existence of God (and their discontents).”
“For millennia, philosophy and religion have had a love-hate relationship,” says Dr. Walsh, “Socrates was executed for blaspheming the gods. Thomas Aquinas argued that faith and reason are actually compatible, and that philosophy can deepen religious faith. So, why believe in God? Is it solely a matter of faith? Or can we give rational arguments for the existence of God? This talk will examine the two most famous rational proofs for the existence of God, the argument from causation and the argument from design, and some common objections to them.”
Dr. Walsh continued, “Philosophy is both a historical tradition and a method of rational inquiry. It begins with the idea that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living.’ The philosopher is one who examines why we think the way we do about issues that are central to the human condition. But philosophical debates can start to sound very abstract and disconnected from our everyday lives. This lecture series aims to bring philosophy back to the public square by illuminating the continued relevance of philosophical thinking to contemporary issues that matter to us.”
Dr. Walsh is a resident of Bernardsville and a faculty member in the philosophy department at Fordham University. A graduate of Villanova University, he received his PhD in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. His published work focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. He teaches a wide variety of courses, including “Human Nature,” “Philosophy and Popular Culture,” “Chinese Philosophy,” and “Philosophy of Technology.” Dr. Walsh is on a mission to bring philosophy out of the classroom and into the public eye. His motto comes from the great American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.”
There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Click here to sign up.