This morning I preached a sermon at Riverhead Presbyterian Church on Christ’s exposition of the 6th Commandment, the prohibition on homicide, contained in the Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday Study series is essentially a transcript of today’s sermon. Christ states, You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not […]
Entries Tagged as 'Ethics'
Sunday Study: Christ on The Prohibition on Homicide Part I
July 12th, 2009 Comments Off on Sunday Study: Christ on The Prohibition on Homicide Part I
Tags: Homicide · Riverhead Presbyterian Church · Sermon on the Mount · Sunday Study
Fisking Ian Hassall: The Arbitrary Ethical Reasoning on the Smacking Referendum
July 10th, 2009 41 Comments
Recently Dr Ian Hassall gave a presentation, on the upcoming referendum on section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, entitled: How did we come to have a law that supported hitting children? This presentation defends the thesis that mild physical punishment (smacking) is wrong and should remain illegal in New Zealand. In this post I […]
Tags: David Benatar · Defences · Ethics · Ian Hassall · Moral Discourse · Referendum · s59 · Smacking
Fisking Margaret Mayman: The Flawed Moral Theology on the Smacking Referendum
July 7th, 2009 7 Comments
In “A Christian Perspective on the Child Discipline Referendum,” Rev Dr Margaret Mayman presents a theological justification for retaining the amended section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, which has criminalised force used against a child for the purposes of parental correction. Mayman began by offering three standard arguments for repealing the old section 59, […]
Tags: Crimes Act · David Benatar · Hermeneutics · Margaret Mayman · Referendum · s59 · Smacking · Theology
The Foreshore and Seabed Repeal: The Inconvenience of Due Process
July 2nd, 2009 14 Comments
That the state is not above the law but also subject to it is surely one of the foundational concepts of any just and free society. This notion has found its place in the writings of many influential philosophers, jurists and theologians, it can be found in the constitutions and bills of rights of most […]
Tags: Foreshore and Seabed · Human Rights · Jurisprudence · Justice · Liberty · Māori Land · Ngāti Apa
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
No Tears for George Tiller
June 4th, 2009 44 Comments
Since hearing of the murder of abortionist George Tiller I have been wanting to find some way to express my thoughts on the matter as while I am not sad that Tiller is dead, I do support the prosecution of his killer. Philosopher Ed Feser’s post, “Two monsters,” where he contrasts the murder of Tiller […]
Is Abortion Liberal?
May 16th, 2009 22 Comments
A submission to The Christian Libertarian Blog Carnival. Laws permitting abortion on demand are often deemed to be liberal. Political liberals are frequently ardent defenders of such laws. My contention is that support for abortion on the grounds of liberality is mistaken. I argue for this position in a two part series: Is Abortion Liberal? […]
Tags: Abortion · Christian Libertarian Blog Carnival · Classical Liberalism · Ethics · Feticide · Liberalism · Libertarianism
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.
