According to the much-discussed argument from divine hiddenness, God’s existence is disconfirmed by the fact that not everyone believes in God. The argument has provoked an impressive range of theistic replies, but none has overcome – or, I suggest, could overcome – the challenge posed by the uneven distribution of theistic belief around the world, a phenomenon for which naturalistic explanatio...

the decline of attention to the facade of modernity and the inclination toward spirituality and theism in the third millennium is the evidence of human natural tendency toward spirituality, theism, and faith. this is, also, to some extent connected to discussions of identity and semantics in organizations. this paper tries to review the works of researchers on spirituality and theism along with...

Abstract I argue that classical theism has a significant advantage as theory of the First Cause over Graham Oppy's naturalistic account. This is because not only gives us clear answer to question how many first causes there are but also it explains why number and another. In comparison, ‘initial physical state’ account seemingly leaves these questions hopelessly open, so does his ‘metaphysical ...

As the human intellect, though weak, is not essentially perverted, there is a certain presumption of the truth of any opinion held by many human minds, requiring to be rebutted by assigning some other real or possible cause for its prevalence. And this consideration has a special relevance to the inquiry concerning the foundations of theism, inasmuch as no argument for the truth of theism is mo...

Abstract Relying on inference to the best explanation (IBE) requires one hold intuition that world is ‘intelligible’, is, such states of affairs at least generally have explanations for their obtaining. I argue metaphysical naturalists are rationally required withhold this intuition, unless they cease be naturalists. This because all plausible naturalistic aetiologies entail and state which it ...

I discuss motivations for methodological naturalism in science. I argue that methodological naturalism neither needs nor supports metaphysical naturalism. We are the beneficiaries of many generations’ efforts to unlock the mysteries of nature. The best scientific theories of today have achieved unparalleled predictive success, and this success provides some evidence that these theories have lat...

Due to the logical relations between theism and intelligent design (ID), there are two challenges to theism that also apply to ID. In the falsifiability challenge, it is charged that theism is compatible with every observation statement and thus asserts nothing. I argue that the contentious assumptions of this challenge can be avoided without loss of precision by charging theism (and thus ID) d...

Silicon soil amendment has been shown to enhance plant defenses against insect pests. Rice is a silicon-accumulating graminaceous plant. In the southern United States, the rice water weevil and stem borers are important pests of rice. Current management tactics for these pests rely heavily on the use of insecticides. This study evaluated the effects of silicon amendment when combined with curre...