Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov’s famously contended that if God does not exist then anything is permissible. Ken over at Open Parachute disagrees and goes one step further and argues that the shoe is on the other foot. Ken maintains that theistic accounts of obligation lead to an “extreme form of moral relativism” and in fact, Dostoevsky’s […]
Entries from April 28th, 2009
With God Anything can be Permitted: Another Bad Argument against Theistic Morality
April 28th, 2009 30 Comments
Tags: Atheism · Bad Reasoning · Divine Command Theory · Ethics · God and Morality
PJ O’Rourke on Perfect Form: A Review of Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing
April 27th, 2009 3 Comments
Given that PJ O’Rourke will be speaking in Auckland this week (see details, Invisible Hand versus Visible Fist) I thought I would share this gem with you; it is a rant by PJ O’Rourke on politically correct language, Perfect Form: A Review of Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing. It is so funny that it is hard […]
Tags: Humour · Political Correctness
Sunday Study: The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
April 26th, 2009 7 Comments
“If something nice happens to somebody else be happy for them and not angry for yourself.” This is one of those concepts we try to drum into our kids when we talk about good sportsmanship, not being jealous when watching a sibling open their birthday presents or when one gets an invite somewhere exciting that […]
Tags: Sunday Study · Theology
Go on and Rubberneck
April 26th, 2009 3 Comments
In case you have noticed and wondered at the recent flurry of arrivals from Kiwiblog in the Live Traffic Feed you might click here and then once on the page use “control f” then type in “abortion” and then read the defamatory statement about me (and Matt) and the ensuing debate that began on Friday. […]
Antony Flew v William Lane Craig debate “Does God Exist?”
April 26th, 2009 3 Comments
In 1948 Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston debated the existance of God on the BBC radio. That debate was considered the definitive debate of that generation. Fifty years later, to commemorate this debate, a debate re-examining the arguments for and against the existence of God was arranged between William Lane Craig and Antony Flew before […]
Tags: Antony Flew · Debates · Philosophy of Religion · William Lane Craig
ANZAC Day: Lest we Forget or Have we Already?
April 25th, 2009 8 Comments
In ‘MCMXIV’ Philip Larkin describes the queues to enlist at the start of the first World War: The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An August Bank Holiday lark His late-century comment was “Never such innocence again.” When I read these words in Jonathan Glover’s Humanity […]
Tags: ANZAC Day · World War I
How to Judge a Beauty Pageant: Political Views more Important than Looks
April 24th, 2009 3 Comments
Apparently being an underweight and skeletal, having a BMI outside the healthy weight range, is an irrelevant factor for a beauty pageant judge to take into account when assessing who is the fairest of them all but a candidate’s opinion on gay marriage is not.
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Gay Marriage · Political Correctness
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.
