My paper, “Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle?” has been published in a special issue of Religions, devoted to the topic Do We Now Have A Logical Argument From Evil? The abstract is as follows: This paper criticises James Sterba’s use of the Pauline principle to formulate a logical version of the problem of […]
Entries Tagged as 'Problem of Evil'
Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle? Comments on James Sterba’s Argument from Evil
November 3rd, 2022 Comments Off on Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle? Comments on James Sterba’s Argument from Evil
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Deontological Argument from Evil · Divine Command Theory · George Berkeley · James Sterba · John Mackie · Pauline Principle · Problem of Evil · Theological Utilitarianism · Utilitarianism
Hear Matt’s Three Talks on “Questions People ask”
October 29th, 2015 Comments Off on Hear Matt’s Three Talks on “Questions People ask”
Recently Matt spoke at Orewa Community Church, as part of their series on “Questions People ask”. His three talks: “How can there be just one religion?”, “How does God allow suffering?”, and “Hasn’t Science disproved Christianity?” are all available to listen online to here.
Tags: Apologetics · Pluralism · Problem of Evil · Science and Religion · Sermons
“Do as I say, not as I do.” Is God a cosmic hypocrite?
October 23rd, 2014 8 Comments
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 […]
Tags: God and Morality · Hypocrisy · Problem of Evil
Hear Matt’s EPS Apologetics Conference Paper in Advance & Eat 3 Courses for $10 – This Weekend in Auckland
September 26th, 2011 1 Comment
We are going to the United States in November to, between us, give 4 talks to 4 different conferences that we have been invited to speak at (details below). We need to raise the funds to get there and so far we have raised about half of what we need thanks to the generosity of readers […]
Tags: Apologetics · Evangelical Philosophical Society · Mad | Food · Massey Presbyterian Church · Problem of Evil · San Francisco · South Bend
Contra Mundum: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
April 4th, 2011 29 Comments
22 February 2011 “may well be New Zealand’s darkest day”; these were the words of Prime Minister John Key in the aftermath of the earthquake which devastated the South Island’s largest city Christchurch. The death toll is expected to be over 200, many more have been injured, have lost property and now live in fear […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Christchurch Earthquake · Daniel Howard-Snyder · Problem of Evil
Video of John Lennox “Why? Considering the Goodness and Sovereignty of God in the Midst of Suffering”
March 8th, 2011 1 Comment
http://vimeo.com/moogaloo
On 27 February 2011, John Lennox spoke at Howick Baptist Church as part of his tour of New Zealand on the topic “Why? Considering the Goodness and Sovereignty of God in the Midst of Suffering”. Here is the video of that talk. In it Lennox discusses some of the challenges to Christianity that events like the Christchurch earthquake […]
Tags: Christchurch Earthquake · Howick Baptist Church · John Lennox · Problem of Evil
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.
Aslan is Not a Tame Lion: The Christchurch Earthquake Beyond Our Questions
April 16th, 2011 14 Comments
In the aftermath of the second Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, “official” Christian spokesmen were exercised to assure people that God, the Living God, had nothing to do with earthquakes. They defalcated. Their theodicy was that their god was absent. In the face of likely outrage, church officials revealed that they worship, in fact, the […]
Tags: Aslan · Chris Trotter · Christchurch Earthquake · Problem of Evil