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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Ethics'
Is belief in God essential for Morality? Why Crime Statistics don’t answer this question
November 18th, 2014 7 Comments
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
Out Now: Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God by Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan
November 4th, 2014 Comments Off on Out Now: Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God by Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan
Well done Matt and Paul. 🙂 Out now! Get your copy today of Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God, by Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan, published by Baker Books. More here. Buy from Baker Books Buy on Amazon in paperback Buy for your Kindle Buy from Book Depository (The New Zealand store launch is […]
Tags: Canaanites · Did God Really Command Genocide? · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Is God a Moral Monster? · Old Testament Ethics · Paul Copan
“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
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
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
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.
