In my post on Assessing Arguments I noted that a valid argument is one where it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. I gave the following example: Premise: All men are under 10 feet tall; Premise: John is a man; Conclusion: John is under 10 feet tall. This argument […]
Entries Tagged as 'God and Morality'
Friday Fallacy: Equivocation
April 16th, 2011 14 Comments
Tags: Equivocation Fallacy · Fallacy Friday · Luke Muehlhauser · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong · Wes Morriston · William Wainwright
Debate Review: Sam Harris and William Lane Craig on Divine Command Theory Part I
April 13th, 2011 54 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
Ethical Naturalism and the Euthyphro Dilemma
April 12th, 2011 10 Comments
Some people argue that moral obligations can be grounded in scientifically verifiable facts about human wellbeing and flourishing. This view is a form of ethical naturalism. For these people moral rightness is just the property of promoting or enhancing human flourishing. Plato refuted this argument over 2,000 years ago in his famous dialogue The Euthyphro. The […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · Ethical Naturalism · Euthyphro Dilemma · God and Morality · Humour · Plato
Video: Sam Harris v William Lane Craig Debate “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?”
April 9th, 2011 12 Comments
Sam Harris and William Lane Craig debated the moot “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?” at the University of Notre Dame on 7 April 2011. We’ve already linked to the debate MP3 but here is the video of the whole debate. Hat tip: Pondering the Preponderance See Matthew Flannagan’s: Debate Review: Sam Harris and […]
Tags: Debates · Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural? · Sam Harris · Videos · William Lane Craig
Video of Matthew Flannagan Speaking on Divine Command Theory
February 7th, 2011 10 Comments
On 4 February 2011 the Auckland Reason and Science Society (“RSS”) hosted an event they titled “Divine Command Theory with Dr. Matthew Flannagan” at the University of Auckland. For those of you who missed the event, here is the video. Note: This video only includes footage of the talk itself and not the Q&A that […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · MandM on Video · Reason and Science Society
Contra Mundum: Is God a 21st Century Western Liberal?
February 1st, 2011 15 Comments
On 11 September 2001 Islamic terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Centre killing thousands of innocent people. Ostensibly they did this because they believed God commanded them to do so. This event has invigorated a fear latent in the Western psyche since the 17th century when wars of religion tore Europe apart, the […]
Tags: 9/11 · Contra Mundum · God and Morality · Hermeneutics · J J Finkelstein · Raymond Bradley · Raymond Westbrook · Robert Adams · World Trade Centre
Nietzsche on Over-Compensating
January 25th, 2011 61 Comments
They are rid of the Christian God and now believe all the more firmly that they must cling to Christian morality. They must rehabilitate themselves after ever little emancipation from religion by showing in a veritably awe-inspiring way what moral fanatics they are. That is their penance. Friedrich Nietzsche
Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche · God and Morality
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.
