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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Philosophers'
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
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 49 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 305 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
Stark Wars
June 23rd, 2011 29 Comments
Thom Stark has written a lengthy response (304 pages!) to Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster? which he has published on his blog, Religion at the Margins; it is entitled Is God a Moral. Compromiser? A Critical Review of Paul Copan’s. “Is God a Moral Monster?” In it, alongside his criticisms of Copan, Stark makes […]
Tags: Is God a Moral Monster? · Paul Copan · Richard Hess · Thom Stark
Lawful Authority and Just Wars
June 16th, 2011 66 Comments
A reader pointed me to this interesting post on Pacifism and Just War Theory from Baylor University Philosophy Professor, Alexander Pruss. Interestingly Pruss offers an argument similar to the one I presented at a panel discussion on the ethics of war recently. In this discussion I suggested that traditional Christian Just War Theory follows from […]
Tags: Alexander Pruss · Just War · Pacifism · War Ethics
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
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.
