On Monday 2 August at the University of Auckland Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Dr Raymond Bradley and Dr Matthew Flannagan (of this blog) debated the topic “Is God the Source of Morality? Is it rational to ground right and wrong in commands issued by God?”
While the video is still being edited and formatted, Thinking Matters has released the audio of the debate, Click here to stream the debate or click here to download the file.
RELATED POSTS:
Video: Bradley v Flannagan “Is God the Source of Morality?
Joint Communique: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Raymond Bradley’s Opening Statement: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Matthew Flannagan’s Opening Statement: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Bradley’s Reply to Matt: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Flannagan’s Reply to Ray: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Glenn Peoples’ Review: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
Tags: Debates · God and Morality · Matthew Flannagan · Podcast · Raymond Bradley · Thinking Matters5 Comments
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.
[…] The audio has now been posted. (H/T Jason from Thinking Matters […]
Matthew Flannagan’s Podcast…
Give it a listen. Matt’s a smart kid….
Lukeprog over at Common Sense Atheism has now listened to this debate and given his pronouncement on it:- I don’t know if you’ve seen what he wrote?
Hi Madeleine,
I listened to Matt’s debate with Ray Bradley.
Matt responded directly and clearly to Ray’s arguments and showed why they didn’t work. Ray did indeed misrepresent Matt’s position, and made vague statements that are difficult not to describe as sophistry. Toward the end, Ray was left to babble about irrelevant issues.
I suspect there are many Biblical passages that Ray could have used that cannot be shown to be plausibly figurative like the genocide of the Canaanites or the Noachian flood. But as Matt showed, Ray’s particular argument was already flawed for other reasons. In the end, Ray has to “sum up” by arguing against Young Earth Creationism! WTF?
And as matter of style, Ray is rather melodramatic and Matt more analytic. In philosophy, I happen to prefer the latter, though good arguments can be presented with both styles.
I was a bit unclear, though… does Matt hold that all the talk of stoning in the Bible is figurative? I would be curious to read the research behind that claim.
[…] has a post dealing with the grounding of morality, titled, “Is God the Source of Morality? Is it Rational to Ground Right and Wrong in Commands Issued by God… This one is a podcast (mp3 audio […]
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