In his article, “Why Traditional Theism Cannot Provide an Adequate Foundation for Morality”, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong argued that a “Divine command theory makes morality childish.”[1] In my response to Armstrong, “Is Ethical Naturalism more Plausible than Supernaturalism?”[2] I made two points. First, I addressed a tangential point: that Armstrong’s argument caricatures divine command theory (“DCT”) by tacitly assuming that […]
Entries Tagged as 'God and Morality'
Richard Carrier and the “Infantile” objection to God’s command’s
October 27th, 2015 1 Comment
Tags: Autonomy · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Hell · Richard Carrier · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Did God Really Command Genocide? Summarised at Moral Apologetics
October 24th, 2015 Comments Off on Did God Really Command Genocide? Summarised at Moral Apologetics
Over at Moral Apologetics, David Baggett and Mark Foreman, are undertaking the task of writing chapter summaries of Paul Copan’s and my book, “Did God Really Command Genocide?” The chapter summaries are available here.
Tags: Canaanites · David Baggett · Did God Really Command Genocide? · Paul Copan
Randal Rauser’s Interview: “Matthew Flannagan on God and Genocide”
April 15th, 2015 6 Comments
When Matt was in San Diego for the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) meetings in November 2014, Randal Rauser interviewed him for his Podcast, The Tentative Apologist. The interview was for episode 58 and is entitled “Matthew Flannagan on God and Genocide“; you can listen to it by following the link. (It is […]
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A very belated report on my trip to San Diego
April 12th, 2015 Comments Off on A very belated report on my trip to San Diego
With trips to the US, Christmas, New Years, the summer break, Madeleine’s work, my preaching and juggling the family and the launch of my book, it has been a while since I blogged. Since the last post was about me going to the US I figured I should start by giving a very belated update on the trip […]
Tags: Evangelical Philosophical Society · Evangelical Theological Society · Society of Biblical Literature
Is belief in God essential for Morality? Why Crime Statistics don’t answer this question
November 18th, 2014 7 Comments
Readers of this blog will note that, of late, I have been focusing a lot in my thinking, writing and research on questions of the relationship between religion and morality. One particular frustration I encounter in this topic is the, unfortunately common, tendency for writers and researchers to conflate separate questions and subsequently give answers […]
Tags: Atheism · God and Morality
The Arbitrariness Objection (once more): A brief reply to Jason Thibodeau
November 7th, 2014 6 Comments
Jason Thibodeau over at The Secular Outpost has written a thoughtful discussion and response to the critique I made of Walter Sinnott Armstrong’s arbitrariness objection in my article, “Is Ethical Naturalism more Plausible than Supernaturalism: A Reply to Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.” Jason suggests that when you disambiguate the premises of Armstrong’s argument, it is formulated as follows: […]
Tags: Arbitrariness Objection · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Jason Thibodeau · Walter Sinno
On Judging Books by their Covers: A Fisk of the Secularist Outpost’s book review of Did God Really Command Genocide?
November 4th, 2014 Comments Off on On Judging Books by their Covers: A Fisk of the Secularist Outpost’s book review of Did God Really Command Genocide?
You should not judge a book by its cover, unless you are a secularist… then it is okay. In a post entitled “Books Like This Should be a Warning Signal to Inerrantists“, published on 26 September 2014, The Secular Outpost’s Jeffery Jay Lowder refers to Paul Copan and this blog’s Matthew Flannagan’s, then forthcoming, book Did […]
Tags: Canaanites · Did God Really Command Genocide? · Old Testament Ethics · Paul Copan
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.
