A while ago I did a series of semi-popular posts on moral relativism beginning with Cultural Confusion and Ethical Relativism I. These posts grew out of a talk I gave in Tauranga in 2008. Later I presented essentially the same talk at Laidlaw College for Thinking Matters Auckland which was posted on You Tube and [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Deane Galbraith · Relativism · The Dunedin School
It was a typical chilly Dunedin morning. I was standing in line at the Otago University Post Shop, about to send an important document overseas, when the student in front of me, oblivious to his audience, announced to the girl beside him “I’ve got a doll of Jesus in my car, I have tied a [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Glyn Cardy · Joseph · Mary · St Matthews in the City · Theology
The assumption that ‘it is wrong to impose your moral beliefs onto others’ is almost unilaterally accepted in society. Everyone knows this, only zealous religious types seem to believe that it is acceptable to try to foist their morality onto others; the concept of respecting other people’s beliefs seems to be lost on the religious. [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Contra Mundum · Ethics · Investigate Magazine · Ken Perrott · Leslie Cannold
Ken Perrott from Open Parachute has asked me some questions about my views on morality and divine commands. Views I have repeatedly expressed on this blog. Given that others have from time to time asked me similar questions, and given the length of my response, I have decided to turn my answers into a post. [...]
Tags: Atheism · Bad Reasoning · Divine Command Theory · Ethics · God and Morality
Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov’s famously contended that if God does not exist then anything is permissible. Ken over at Open Parachute disagrees and goes one step further and argues that the shoe is on the other foot. Ken maintains that theistic accounts of obligation lead to an “extreme form of moral relativism” and in fact, Dostoevsky’s [...]
Tags: Atheism · Bad Reasoning · Divine Command Theory · Ethics · God and Morality
Apparently being an underweight and skeletal, having a BMI outside the healthy weight range, is an irrelevant factor for a beauty pageant judge to take into account when assessing who is the fairest of them all but a candidate’s opinion on gay marriage is not.
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Gay Marriage · Political Correctness
The flawed reasoning, commonly found in most media commentary on human embryonic stem-cell research, was not lost on the makers of South Park. I love how brutal South Park are in exposing PC rubbish; see the YouTube clips below. [There are two, fast loading, clips below; they are linked so that both will autoplay] Hat [...]
Tags: Abortion · Bad Reasoning · Embryocide · Ethics · Feticide · Humour · Science and Religion
Hone Harawira has called for the men who assaulted Prime Minister John Key to be not dealt with by the courts because the assault was minor and understandable. This is the same Member of Parliament who voted to criminalise parents for giving their kids a light smack who now wants adults who (allegedly) lightly assaulted [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Smacking
See this clip for yet another President of the United States who supports human embryonic stem-cell research but has no clue what he is talking about. Bill Clinton says he thinks the issue has become “too politicised” and we should be like him and “hand it back to science.” He says this despite having repeatedly [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Embryocide
No Defences Permitted for the Accused
June 19th, 2009 36 Comments
In, The referendum campaign is underway, No Right Turn’s Idiot/Savant gives an excellent example of an argument we see coming up a lot in the debate around the upcoming referendum on smacking. In addition to trotting out the standard ad hominem, that everyone who supports the reinstatement of the old section 59 of the Crimes [...]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Crimes Act · Defences · Idiot/Savant · Referendum · s59 · Smacking · Sue Bradford · William Blackstone