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Entries Tagged as 'Divine Command Theory'

Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle? Comments on James Sterba’s Argument from Evil

November 3rd, 2022 Comments Off on Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle? Comments on James Sterba’s Argument from Evil

My paper, “Is Theism Incompatible with the Pauline Principle?” has been published in a special issue of Religions, devoted to the topic Do We Now Have A Logical Argument From Evil? The abstract is as follows:   This paper criticises James Sterba’s use of the Pauline principle to formulate a logical version of the problem of […]

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Thinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part Three:

September 8th, 2022 3 Comments

This year the New Zealand apologetics organization Thinking Matters ran a “Confident Christianity Conference” in Auckland. I was asked to speak at this conference on the topic. Does Morality Need God? Below is a slightly streamlined version of the talk I gave. This brings me to my second contention: If God exists, a divine command theory […]

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Thinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part One

August 24th, 2022 Comments Off on Thinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part One

This year the New Zealand apologetics organization Thinking Matters, ran a “Confident Christianity Conference” in Auckland. I was asked to speak at this conference on the topic. Does Morality Need God? Below is a slightly streamlined version of the talk I gave. “If God does not exist, then everything is permissible.” These words from Ivan […]

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Evil, limited, and Indifferent deities: The Horrendous Deeds Objection Redivivus?

November 22nd, 2021 2 Comments

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3zSoGqKdEk

Last week, I was scheduled to present the above paper at the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society at Fort Worth, Texas. Unfortunately, Auckland’s lockdown prevented this, and the paper had to be cancelled due to the logistics involved. I did, however, pre-record the talk, so it is available below: Abstract: A common objection […]

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Can a Divine Command Theory Vindicate the Objectivity of Morality: Huemer on Observer Independence, part two

September 12th, 2021 Comments Off on Can a Divine Command Theory Vindicate the Objectivity of Morality: Huemer on Observer Independence, part two

In my last post, I discussed Michael Huemer’s argument that a divine command theory cannot vindicate the objectivity of moral requirements. As I interpret him, the  argument is: [1] Our commitment to morality presupposes that moral requirements are objective. [2] Moral requirements are objective just in case there obtain facts about what is right and […]

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Can a Divine Command Theory Ground the Objectivity of Morality? Michael Huemer on Observer Independence: Part One

September 12th, 2021 Comments Off on Can a Divine Command Theory Ground the Objectivity of Morality? Michael Huemer on Observer Independence: Part One

In a previous post  I criticized David Brink’s argument that a divine command theory cannot vindicate the objectivity of morality. Brink argued: [1] Our commitment to morality presupposes that moral requirements are objective [2] Moral requirements are objective just in case facts about what is right or wrong obtain independently of the moral beliefs or […]

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Can a Divine command theory account for the objectivity of moral requirements? Elizabeth Tropman, Russ Shafer-Landau, and “Stance Independence”.

September 1st, 2021 Comments Off on Can a Divine command theory account for the objectivity of moral requirements? Elizabeth Tropman, Russ Shafer-Landau, and “Stance Independence”.

In my last post, I criticised David Brink’s argument that a divine command theory cannot vindicate the objectivity of morality. A different version of the objection comes from Elizabeth Tropman. Tropman begins by giving several reasons for thinking that moral realism is an attractive moral theory. She then argues that a divine command theory fails […]

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