In this three-part series I will look at some different ways of adjudicating conflicts between apparent divine commands and moral beliefs starting with Immanuel Kant. In “Commonsense Atheism and the Canaanite Massacre” I addressed a question put to me by Luke from Commonsense Atheism, “If Matt did think these events happened literally as described in the […]
Entries Tagged as 'Atheists'
God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part I Kant
October 13th, 2010 185 Comments
Tags: Canaanites · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Kant · Luke Muehlhauser · Old Testament Ethics · Philip Quinn · Religious History · Robert Adams
What Atheists Could Learn from Legal Interpretation 101
October 7th, 2010 117 Comments
At the beginning of each semester my lecturers would remind students of the fire policy, “if the alarm sounds leave the lecture theatre immediately through the nearest exit and reassemble outside the Davis law library.” Now if during class one day my lecturer had said to me, “Madeleine, do not leave class today until you […]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Hermeneutics · John Loftus · Michael Martin · Old Testament Ethics · Rape · Stephen Carr
Commonsense Atheism and the Canaanite Massacre
September 23rd, 2010 25 Comments
Luke Muehlauser at Commonsense Atheism has written a review of my argument on the genocide of the Canaanites (Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I and Part II). Luke’s comments are largely positive (and I appreciate that a critic of Theism and Christianity sees merit in my position) he does, however, raise a few issues […]
Tags: Canaanites · Commonsense Atheism · Genocide · Luke Muehlhauser · Old Testament Ethics · William Lane Craig
Video: Bradley v Flannagan “Is God the Source of Morality?
September 20th, 2010 19 Comments
On Monday 2 August at the University of Auckland Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Dr Raymond Bradley and Dr Matthew Flannagan (of this blog) debated the topic “Is God the Source of Morality? Is it rational to ground right and wrong in commands issued by God?” Here is the video of that debate. Hat Tip: Thinking Matters […]
Tags: Debates · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · MandM on Video · Matthew Flannagan · Raymond Bradley
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and the Moral Scepticism Objection to Divine Commands
September 16th, 2010 9 Comments
In responding to William Lane Craig’s advocacy of a Divine Command Theory (DCT) Walter Sinnott-Armstrong makes the objection that,“The divine command theory makes morality unknowable.” He makes the following argument for this: To see why, consider whether or not it is immoral to eat pork. If the divine command theory is correct, we cannot answer […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · James Cornman · Keith Lehrer · Patrick Nowell Smith · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong · William Lane Craig
Watch the Video of “The New Atheism, Science & Morality” with Glenn Peoples
September 8th, 2010 62 Comments
http://vimeo.com/moogaloo
The unofficial video of Glenn Peoples’ talk at Auckland Uni “The New Atheism, Science & Morality” is online. Hat Tip: E†B
Tags: Atheism · Glenn Peoples · New Atheists · Sam Harris · Thinking Matters
Recycling The Dawkins Delusion
August 27th, 2010 3 Comments
Browsing the archives this morning I stumbled accross this gem, The Dawkins Delusion, which Matt originally published here some three years ago back before we had much of a readership so a lot you may have missed it. It is seriously clever and funny – go see!
Tags: Humour · New Atheists · Richard Dawkins
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.
