MandM header image 5

Entries Tagged as 'Ethics'

Craig Young on “Bare Backing”

August 21st, 2007 Comments Off on Craig Young on “Bare Backing”

Craig Young is shocked by statistics about “bare backing” being prevalent in the Gay community. Bare backing in case you don’t know is the name Craig gives to un-protected anal sex. Young is shocked because it suggests there exists a “parallel world where Paul Cameron tells the truth.” To understand this you need to understand […]

Tags:   · · ·

The Question of Islam

August 21st, 2007 Comments Off on The Question of Islam

An interesting discussion of Islam has been occurring at Kiwiblog. Up until now I have merely chipped in to correct inaccurate claims about Christian beliefs and practices. However, for what its worth I’ll add my two cents worth here. Here is what I think the issues are. We are familiar with Christian teachings on the […]

Tags:   · · ·

Texan Justice and Liberal fiction

August 19th, 2007 Comments Off on Texan Justice and Liberal fiction

Texas is about to perform it’s 400th execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982. Stuff has an interesting article on this entitled “Religion, Culture Behind, Texas Execution Tally” The article suggests that outsiders find it puzzling that evangelical Christians support capital punishment. This surprise, I suggest, reflects the theological and historical ignorance of these […]

Tags:   ·

Against Liberal Morality

August 10th, 2007 Comments Off on Against Liberal Morality

In debates over abortion, homosexual conduct, euthanasia, prostitution, drugs. Those who call themselves liberals often mount the same basic argument. A socially or morally permissive stance is necessitated towards such practices because people have a right to choose do what ever they like with their bodies. As Mill put it, The only part of the […]

Tags:   · · · · ·

Abortion and Capital Punishment: No Contradiction

August 2nd, 2007 1 Comment

This blog post has been published in Think: A Journal of the Royal Institute for Philosophy 6 (2008) 87-92, which is a journal of Cambridge University. One argument I frequently hear is that opposition to feticide, the killing of a human fetus, is inconsistent with support for capital punishment. Some times this argument is pushed even further. […]

Tags:   · · · · ·

Some Questions for Dr. Michael Cullen

July 27th, 2007 5 Comments

I saw Dr. Michael Cullen speaking in on TV3 last night. What he said was interesting because it highlights a tension I have often noted in liberal views of sexual morality . The issue was as follows: A school had hired a teacher. This teacher however had advertised on an internet adult site for a […]

Tags:   · · ·

Jim Flynn’s suggestion: Contraception and Religious Freedom

July 12th, 2007 3 Comments

When I was teaching the history of early modern philosophy at Otago last year, one of my students told me I reminded them of Dr Jim Flynn. This was supposed to be a compliment. Flynn was highly regarded at Otago even those who considered themselves conservatives had good things to say about Flynn. I knew […]

Tags:   · · ·