Late last year I, wrote a criticism of Jerry Coyne’s piece in USA today. Entitled, As atheists know, you can be good without God. My critique attracted some attention. Getting commentary from Mary Ann Spikes, Jason Thibodeau, Jeffery Lay Lowder, and Brian Zamulinski. Since the USA today article Coyne has written a follow up article where [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Atheists'
Jerry Coyne on God and Morality Revisited
February 23rd, 2012 40 Comments
Tags: Divine Command Theory · Jerry Coyne · New Atheists · Robert Adams · William Lane Craig
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
Want to see Matthew Flannagan debate John W. Loftus in America?
October 6th, 2011 67 Comments
As you all know, Matt and I are going to the US to speak at 4 conferences in November. John W. Loftus is aware of this and in a comment on this blog has suggested a debate between himself and Matt during the 3 days we have spare between conferences – ideally for us 14 [...]
Tags: Debates · John Loftus · Outsider Test for Faith
Skepticule Extra – A Podcast on the Euthyphro Dilemma Feat. Matthew Flannagan
September 16th, 2011 31 Comments
Recently Matt did a podcast on Divine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Dilemma for Skepticule Extra, aka the “Pauls to the Power of Three Podcast” hosted by Paul Baird, Paul Thompson (“Sinbad”) and Paul S. Jenkins. You can listen to that podcast here. Visit Skepticule for more listening options.
Tags: Divine Command Theory · Euthyphro Dilemma · Paul Baird · Paul Jenkins · Paul Thompson · Skepticule
Divine Commands Post 9/11
September 12th, 2011 43 Comments
The night of September 11, 2001, was a night we did not get much sleep in. By 4am September 12 (New Zealand time) our two-week old son and 14 month old daughter had woken us twice already. Frustratingly, I awoke again sometime after 4am to a different noise coming from the lounge; it turned out [...]
Tags: 9/11 · Divine Command Theory · Osama Bin Laden · Raymond Bradley · Robert Adams · Terrorism
Guest Post: Paul Copan Replies to Hector Avalos – Deuteronomy 25:11-12, an Eye for an Eye, and Raymond Westbrook
July 9th, 2011 57 Comments
My book review of John Loftus’s The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails prompted several responses from Hector Avalos, one of the book’s contributors. Avalos has offered critiques of not just my arguments but also those of my good friend Paul Copan. This Guest Post, written by Paul Copan, responds to some of Avalos’s charges. Paul [...]
Tags: Bruce Wells · Hector Avalos · John Loftus · Lex Talionis · Old Testament Ethics · Paul Copan · Raymond Westbrook
Hector Avalos and Careful, Non-Selective Citation of Sources
June 30th, 2011 163 Comments
On Debunking Christianity, Hector Avalos has posted a response to my critique of his post A Reply to Hector Avalos’ “Why Flannagan Fails History”. His latest post is entitled Flannagan Versus Westbrook: Understanding the Problem; it pretty much repeats points I have addressed in my critique, basically Avalos pretends I did not answer them. In [...]
Tags: Hector Avalos · Is God a Moral Monster? · John Loftus · Paul Copan · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails
A Reply to Hector Avalos’ “Why Flannagan Fails History”
June 28th, 2011 48 Comments
It seems my recent Philosophia Christi review of John W. Loftus’ The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails has hit something of a nerve. Professor Hector Avalos, who wrote “Yahweh is a Moral Monster” in The Christian Delusion, has written a response entitled “Why Dr. Flannagan Fails History, Dr. Hector Avalos Responds”. Avalos raises several points which I cannot [...]
Tags: Hector Avalos · John Loftus · Paul Copan · Raymond Westbrook · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails · Yahweh is a Moral Monster
The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails – A Philosophia Christi Review of John Loftus’ Book
June 25th, 2011 303 Comments
On the list of blurbs just inside the cover of The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, edited by John W. Loftus (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books) 2010, the following appears: As a result of being published on the blurb of the book, the current edition of Philosphia Christi, Vol. 13, no. 1 – Summer 2011, shows the following [...]
Tags: Book Review · David Eller · Edward Babinski · Hector Avalos · Jason Long · John Loftus · Outsider Test for Faith · Paul Tobin · Philosophia Christi · Richard Carrier · Richard Price · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails · Vallerie Tarico
In Defense of Reasonable Disagreement
May 30th, 2011 39 Comments
At the close of his 1967 book “God and Other Minds”, Alvin Plantinga argues that if theistic belief is to be dismissed as “irrational”, or in some sense “epistemically sub-par” on the basis that it lacks a rationally compelling argument, then likewise we should also reject belief in other minds, since the best argument for [...]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Analogical argument · Disagreement · God and Other Minds · Rationality · Reformed Epistemology · Religious Epistemology · Richard Feldman · Theism · Theists
