News that many may have missed while we were in our moving house and not blogging mode is that Madeleine has been admitted to the Register of Lawyers, this means that she may now practice law and work in the areas restricted by law for lawyers. You can even go to the New Zealand Law [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Studies'
Contra Mundum: When Scientists Make Bad Ethicists
October 10th, 2011 390 Comments
One thing I find particularly frustrating is reading commentary on theology and philosophy written by scientists. To be fair, some scientists I have read are informed and do offer astute and insightful comments; commonly, however, one finds a person who is undoubtedly brilliant in their own field, writing with confident gusto, articles that fail to [...]
Tags: Charles Darwin · Contra Mundum · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Investigate Magazine · Jerry Coyne · Robert Adams · Science and Religion
Madeleine Admitted to the Bar
June 24th, 2011 25 Comments
This morning my children and I sat in the Auckland High Court to watch Madeleine be admitted to the Bar. The ceremony had the solemn pomp and formality of Barristers wigs, robes and when Madeleine spoke for the first time in open court as an enrolled Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand she [...]
Tags: Law Studies
Transitioning to University
January 20th, 2011 1 Comment
What is university like? Is it possible to be a Christian there? What does it mean to live well as a student? If you know someone heading off to university this year, they may be asking themselves these kinds of questions. If they’re not asking these, it’s definitely to be encouraged. To help, I’m pleased [...]
The Separation of Church and Self: Rethinking Separationism
December 16th, 2010 119 Comments
Is it just for a pluralistic society to ground its public policy on religious premises? What role should religion play in such a society? Debate over questions like these has figured in theology, philosophy, political science, jurisprudence and popular culture for centuries. In contemporary Western pluralistic society the debate continues. Even for those unfamiliar with [...]
Tags: Christopher Eberle · Coercion Test · Doctrine of Religious Restraint · Endorsement Test · Freedom of Religion · Gerald Gaus · James Madison · John Rawls · Jürgen Habermas · Justice Scalia · Law Studies · Lee v Weisman · Lemon Test · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Philip Devine · Philip Quinn · Philosophy of Religion · Political Philosophy · Religion in Public Life · Richard Rorty · Robert Audi · Separationism · Stephen Carter · Terence Cuneo · Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Congratulations Madeleine Flannagan LLB
September 28th, 2010 27 Comments
Today Madeleine graduates with her LLB (Bachelor of Laws). She started this 17 years ago, took time out to have two of our children and started again in 2008. Despite a car accident, injury and constant pain she has persevered and today receives recognition for her achievement. I am so proud of my wife, her [...]
Tags: Law Studies
Finally! The Words I Have Waited 17 Years to See
July 22nd, 2010 22 Comments
I just logged into nDeva, the University of Auckland’s student records intranet and I just now read the words I have been waiting to read since my first day at Waikato Law School back on 1 March 1993: After everything I went through to get here, as I shared some of in my post In [...]
Tags: Law Studies
Putting Down my Pen
June 18th, 2010 16 Comments
In an exam room somewhere on the campus of the University of Auckland I just put down my pen. (Thanks to the wonders of blog post scheduling I can both blog and write an exam contemporaneously). Unlike every other time I have put down my pen at the end of an exam during the long [...]
Tags: Law Studies
Religious Restraint and Public Policy: Part VI
December 3rd, 2009 No Comments
In my last posts, beginning Religious Restraint and Public Policy: Part I, I set out the doctrine of religious restraint and critiqued some of the key arguments in support of it. I looked at the objection that the argument from respect is too thin, that applied consistently it excludes too much and Audi’s response to [...]
Tags: Christopher Eberle · Doctrine of Religious Restraint · Freedom of Religion · Jurisprudence · Law Studies · Lydia McGrew · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Phillip Quinn · Philosophy of Religion · Political Philosophy · Public Policy · Religion in Public Life · Robert Audi · Stephen Carter · Terence Cuneo
Atheist Posters: University Intolerance is Suddenly News?
February 3rd, 2011 32 Comments
Last night I watched a section on TV3′s Campbell Live about the treatment of a campus atheist club at the University of Lincoln entitled “Atheist uni students’ posters torn down” (follow the link to view the video). This story went into detail about how the clubs posters have been regularly ripped down and defaced. The [...]
Tags: Atheist Club · Campbell Live · Natasha Utting · University of Lincoln