Some people argue that moral obligations can be grounded in scientifically verifiable facts about human wellbeing and flourishing. This view is a form of ethical naturalism. For these people moral rightness is just the property of promoting or enhancing human flourishing. Plato refuted this argument over 2,000 years ago in his famous dialogue The Euthyphro. The […]
Entries Tagged as 'Divine Command Theory'
Ethical Naturalism and the Euthyphro Dilemma
April 12th, 2011 10 Comments
Tags: Divine Command Theory · Ethical Naturalism · Euthyphro Dilemma · God and Morality · Humour · Plato
Video of Matthew Flannagan Speaking on Divine Command Theory
February 7th, 2011 10 Comments
On 4 February 2011 the Auckland Reason and Science Society (“RSS”) hosted an event they titled “Divine Command Theory with Dr. Matthew Flannagan” at the University of Auckland. For those of you who missed the event, here is the video. Note: This video only includes footage of the talk itself and not the Q&A that […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · MandM on Video · Reason and Science Society
God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part III Philip Quinn
November 29th, 2010 5 Comments
In this three-part series I look at some different ways of adjudicating conflicts between apparent divine commands and moral beliefs. I started with Immanuel Kant, I then looked at Robert Adams’ defence of Kant’s position. Now I will complete the series by exploring Philip Quinn’s alternative view. In “God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part II […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Kant · Philip Quinn · Robert Adams
God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part II Robert Adams
October 19th, 2010 7 Comments
In this three-part series I will look at some different ways of adjudicating conflicts between apparent divine commands and moral beliefs. I started with Immanuel Kant, now I will look at Robert Adams’ position. In “God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part I Kant” I mentioned Phillip Quinn’s observation that theists can face a particular dilemma, […]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · James Rissler · Kant · Philip Quinn · Raymond Bradley · Religious History · Robert Adams · Selection
God, Morality and Abhorrent Commands: Part I Kant
October 13th, 2010 185 Comments
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 […]
Tags: Canaanites · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Kant · Luke Muehlhauser · Old Testament Ethics · Philip Quinn · Religious History · Robert Adams
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
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.
