In, my article “Tooley Plantinga and the Deontological Argument from Evil”, I argued that Tooley’s specifically deontological version of the argument from evil fails. To summarise very briefly, Tooley’s version of the argument assumes that God has moral obligations. However, according to a fairly mainstream theistic position on the relationship between God and morality, the […]
Entries from October 23rd, 2014
“Do as I say, not as I do.” Is God a cosmic hypocrite?
October 23rd, 2014 8 Comments
Tags: God and Morality · Hypocrisy · Problem of Evil
Jerry Coyne on Deception and the Omission of Facts
October 21st, 2014 4 Comments
In 2011 I wrote a criticism of Jerry Coyne’s USA Today article, “As atheists know, you can be good without God.” My critique, “When Scientists make bad Ethicists,” attracted some attention motivating Coyne to write a response. I wrote a following up piece the next year, “Jerry Coyne on God and Morality Revisited,” my conclusions were not […]
Tags: Atheists · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Jerry Coyne · William Lane Craig
The New Zealand Herald and Memory Loss
October 16th, 2014 5 Comments
Tags: Media · New Zealand Herald
Richard Carrier and the Abhorrent Commands Objection
October 5th, 2014 4 Comments
In my last post, Richard Carrier and the Arbitrariness Objection, I argued that Richard Carrier’s attempt to defend Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s arbitrariness objection failed. I also argued his defence of this argument is incoherent and engages in special pleading because the arguments he defends apply with equal cogency to his own version of ethical naturalism. When […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Richard Carrier
Matt to speak at the 2014 Evangelical Philosophical Society in San Deigo
October 2nd, 2014 Comments Off on Matt to speak at the 2014 Evangelical Philosophical Society in San Deigo
This blog’s Matthew Flannagan has had his paper “Mackie’s Answer to the Error Theory: A Reply to Joyce″ accepted for the National Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society (“EPS”) in San Diego, USA, from 19-21 November 2014. The abstract for Matt’s paper is as follows: Abstract Richard Joyce has argued that the “real problem” with divine command theories of ethics […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · EPS · Evangelical Philosophical Society · San Diego
Matt to speak at the 2014 Evangelical Theological Society in San Deigo
October 1st, 2014 3 Comments
This blog’s Matthew Flannagan has had his paper “Abortion as Self Defence” accepted for the 66th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (“ETS”) in San Diego, USA, from 19-21 November 2014. The abstract for Matt’s paper is as follows: Abstract Eileen McDonagh has proposed an ingenious argument for abortion rights; she concedes, for the sake of argument, that […]
Tags: Abortion · ETS · Evangelical Theological Society · Feticide · San Diego
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.
A Message from Northern Iraq
October 18th, 2014 Comments Off on A Message from Northern Iraq
This message was apparently received by Auckland Salvation Army. It has been published in the Western Leader and Rodney Times: “A friend just got a text message from her brother asking her to shower him and his parish in prayer. “He is part of a mission and ISIS has taken over the town they are […]
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