MandM has been quite of late, this is because Madeleine and I have been very busy. With moving house in the midst of Christmas and New Years and Madeleine working part-time in a law firm and so on, we’ve had little time to blog. We are now set up, to some extent, and so this [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Ethical Theory'
Back from San Francisco: A Belated Report
February 3rd, 2012 1 Comment
Tags: Biblioblog · David Baggett · Evangelical Philosophical Society · Jerry Walls · Paul Copan · Publication; San Francisco · Society of Biblical Literature · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong · William Lane Craig
Randal Rauser’s Mistake: A Defense of Calvin’s Doctrine of Election
November 12th, 2011 76 Comments
Thanks go to Matthew Flannagan for pointing me in the direction of this response to the problem. A while back Professor Randal Rauser issued a blog entitled “Calvinism and the Arbitrary Camp Director” in which he criticised the Calvinist understanding of election. For those of you who are unaware of the Calvinistic understanding of election, [...]
Tags: Arminianism · Calvinism · Circular Reasoning · Election · Ethics · Evangelical Christianity · Philosophical Theology · Randal Rauser · Salvation · Soteriology · Supererogation · Systematic theology · Theology
Debate Review: Sam Harris and William Lane Craig on Ethical Naturalism Part II
April 18th, 2011 41 Comments
In Part I of my review of the debate between Sam Harris and William Lane Craig on the moot “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural? I discussed Craig’s defence of the contention that: 1. If God exists then we have a plausible account of (a) the nature of moral goodness and (b) the nature of [...]
Tags: Debates · Ethical Naturalism · God and Morality · Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural? · Notre Dame · Robert Adams · Sam Harris · Wes Morriston · William Lane Craig
Debate Review: Sam Harris and William Lane Craig on Divine Command Theory Part I
April 13th, 2011 53 Comments
Last week Sam Harris and William Lane Craig debated the question: “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?” at the University of Notre Dame. Given my interest in divine command meta-ethics I found the debate and the subsequent online discussion concerning it extremely interesting. I was particularly interested in how the ‘new atheist’ movement would [...]
Tags: Debates · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural? · Notre Dame · Philip Quinn · Robert Adams · Sam Harris · William Lane Craig
Hear Matt Speak on Divine Command Theory @ Auckland Uni
January 17th, 2011 4 Comments
The Auckland Reason and Science Society have invited Matt to speak on Divine Command Theory at an upcoming meeting: What: Divine Command Theory with Dr Matthew Flannagan Date: Friday 4 February 2011 Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm Location: Auckland University – Room to be advised From the Facebook event page: “Venturing back into ethics and [...]
Tags: Events · Reason and Science Society
A Response to The Dunedin School’s “Thinking in Tatters: Moral Relativism and So-Called ‘Counter-Examples’”
January 2nd, 2010 9 Comments
In my previous post, A Response to The Dunedin School’s “Thinking in Tatters: Moral Relativism and Hidden Objectivist Assumptions”, I addressed some criticisms levelled at a talk I gave on moral relativsm by Deane from The Dunedin School (TDS) blog. In a follow up post, which, once again, I cannot link directly too as TDS [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Deane Galbraith · Relativism · The Dunedin School
A Response to The Dunedin School’s “Thinking in Tatters: Moral Relativism and Hidden Objectivist Assumptions”
December 29th, 2009 7 Comments
A while ago I did a series of semi-popular posts on moral relativism beginning with Cultural Confusion and Ethical Relativism I. These posts grew out of a talk I gave in Tauranga in 2008. Later I presented essentially the same talk at Laidlaw College for Thinking Matters Auckland which was posted on You Tube and [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Deane Galbraith · Relativism · The Dunedin School
Sunday Study: The Virtue of Judging – Jesus was not a Relativist
June 23rd, 2009 3 Comments
About a year ago I gave a talk on moral relativism for Thinking Matters Tauranga. During that talk I noted that relativism entails that one cannot apply the moral principles you (or your culture) accepts to the practices of other people (or cultures). I was critical of this position arguing that it suffers from all [...]
Tags: Judging · Relativism · Sunday Study · Theology

The NZ Herald on Cactus Kate and Priorities in Journalism Ethics
November 17th, 2009 8 Comments
There is an interesting story unfolding in the blogosphere. Cactus Kate published extracts of APN News and Media’s guidelines for publication on her blog in, APN Chicken Out, and inserted her own commentary and spin on them based on email correspondence from staff members working for APN’s publications. Where it gets really interesting is that [...]
Tags: Cactus Kate · Journalism Ethics · New Zealand Herald