Sidda is a girl again in the hot heart of Louisiana, the bayou world of Catholic saints and voodoo queens. She walks barefoot into the humid night, moonlight on her freckled shoulders. Near a huge, live oak tree on the edge of her father's cotton fields, Sidda looks up into the sky. In the crook of the crescent moon sits the Holy Lady, with strong muscles and a merciful heart. She kicks her spl...

Escapism, a theory of hell proposed by Andrei Buckareff and Allen Plug, explicitly relies on claims about divine reasons for action. However, they say surprisingly little about the general account of reasons for action that would justify the inferences in the argument for escapism. I provide a couple of plausible interpretations of such an account and argue that they help revive the ‘Job object...

One of the arguments for which Kant is best known (or most notorious) is the so-called “moral proof” of the existence of God, freedom, and the immortal soul. Versions of the proof can be found in each of the Critiques, in various lectures, and in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. “Proof” has to be taken loosely here, since the attitude licensed by moral considerations, for Kant, is...

Sri Yantra is one of the most auspicious, important and powerful Yantras, which not only gives the maximum benefit, but also proves beneficial for almost everybody. The traditional methods for drawing Sri Yantra are complex. It is very difficult to obtain Sri Yantra with full accuracy. The objective of this study is to define algorithmic approach for generating Sri Yantra with maximum accuracy....

THERE are no signs that the debate over the chronological data of Genesis 1 is abating. Among those who hold biblical views of the inspiration of the Scriptures certain interpretations of that chronology have, indeed, long been traditional. These may disagree as to the duration of the "days" of Genesis 1 but they have in common the opinion that the order of narration in that chapter coincides w...

The bulk of my essay “Truth and Freedom” opposes fatalism, which is the claim that if there is a true proposition to the effect that an action A will occur, then A will not be free. But that essay also offers a new way to reconcile divine foreknowledge and human freedom. John Martin Fischer and Patrick Todd (2011) raise a number of objections to “Truth and Freedom,” most of which are objections...

Timelessly Present, Compassionately Impassible: A Defense of Two Classical Divine Attributes by Philip R. Olsson Claremont Graduate University: 2012 This study articulates a God-concept in the tradition of classical Christian theism, contending with calls to modify significantly or revise classical constructions. Attention falls upon two closely related divine attributes that have, especially i...

The Fourth Lateran Council teaches that God is a " substantia seu natura simplex omnino " —an " altogether simple substance or nature " —and the First Vatican Council reiterated the teaching. The doctrine of divine simplicity is at the center of Thomas's natural theology, since it is essentially involved in his attempt to show that the First Cause that he has proved to exist in the Five Ways ha...