About Frank Robinson

I am a graduate of NYU Law School, a retired New York State administrative law judge, and author of four books, most recently Life, Liberty, and Happiness (Prometheus Books, 2006, winner of the Spooner Award for “advancing the literature of liberty”). I consider myself a rational optimist, a humanist, and more or less libertarian. My political philosophy is closest to the classical nineteenth century liberalism exemplified by John Stuart Mill (not to be confused with modern American “liberalism”). I am married to the poet Therese Broderick, with a daughter, Elizabeth. I’m in the business of buying and selling world and ancient coins.

Truth or Happiness: Must We Choose?

I recently heard a talk by Gary Brill , who teaches psychology at Rutgers, discussing studies showing religious believers are happier than nonbelievers. Defining happiness can be elusive – a feeling that one is happy? Perhaps a more useful concept is well-being, or flourishing, which describes an entire life rather than just one emotion. Anyhow, Brill did discuss data showing religious believers report greater happiness, suffer fewer psychological disorders (unless you count religious belief itself), recover better from setbacks, cope … Read on…

Christian Science and rationality

I view religion and rationality as very separate. But with most religious ideas, I can at least grasp why people believe them. However, when it comes to Christian Science, I just don’t get it no-how. Read on…

More on religion & morality

In my recent debate (“Is faith necessary for ethics?”) the Christian representative argued that, if religion is guilty of some crimes, atheist regimes like Hitler’s and Stalin’s have been even worse. Yes, playing the good old Hitler card. First, the Nazi regime was not atheist. Hitler frequently invoked God, he was a declared Catholic all his life, and never left the church. And the Vatican never excommunicated him, nor ever even uttered a word of criticism. As to the other … Read on…

Why Religion and Logic Don’t Mix

My wife challenged me to answer an essay by Alvin Plantinga, a professor of philosophy, attempting to justify religious belief through logic. My response: LOL.

For millennia, religious apologists have advanced innumerable supposed logical arguments. It’s a fool’s errand. Read on…

The Secular Conscience

I recently attended a talk by Austin Dacey, of New York’s Center For Inquiry. He has a Doctorate in Applied Ethics and Social Philosophy. His book, The Secular Conscience – Why Belief Belongs in Public Life, was published in 2008 and has received wide attention. Dacey began with a Bible reading: the story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham prepared to obey. Isaac was saved in the nick of time by an angel who said, “Never … Read on…

Antony Flew off? (Or Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?)

I stumbled across an online article in eSkeptic about Antony Flew. I thought readers might be interested; so here’s the gist of the piece, authored by Kenneth Grubbs. Read on…

Faith versus Reason

Frequent commenter Lee recently pointed me to a blog essay by philosopher Michael Lynch, “Reasons for Reason.”

He says current American divisions are rooted in fundamental differences about what makes a belief believable. Lynch sees a problem of circularity in validating reason by using reason, with all beliefs thus ultimately premised on something arbitrary. Read on…

“Is faith necessary for ethics?”

Last night I participated in a debate on this topic, at a local college; there were representatives of five different religions, and I spoke for the humanist viewpoint. Here is my opening statement: The French scientist Laplace wrote a book about planetary physics; and Napoleon asked him why it didn’t mention God. Laplace replied, “Sir, I have no need of that hypothesis.” We humans get morality first from our human nature, developed through biological evolution, and second, from our thinking … Read on…

The Anthropomorphic Argument for a “higher power”

I met a guy last night who made this argument: it’s been calculated that if, for example, the strength of gravity were a teensy bit greater or smaller, our universe with stars and planets, and life, could not exist; and similarly for twenty-odd other parameters in physics; so, in sum, our existence defies astronomical odds against it. Therefore some “higher power” must have manipulated all these parameters, intentionally, to produce a life-friendly universe. This has been called the “anthropomorphic argument.” … Read on…

The Spirituality of Reality

“Spirituality” is not my favorite word; it’s mushy, and connotes antithesis to rationality. But lacking a better word, it does capture something people experience, and seem to desire. We want to feed not just the mind but the soul (another problematic word; I use it metaphorically). We want to transcend the mundane; to apprehend something greater, something deeper. Religion scratches this itch, providing a dose of the ineffable. Its ceremonies do this very well –having evolved over centuries to exploit … Read on…