Few things are thought to be more morally pernicious than the practice of judging others. Sometimes this is given a theological spin with people citing the Sermon on the Mount “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Ethics'
Contra Mundum: The Judgmental Jesus
January 29th, 2010 20 Comments
Tags: Contra Mundum · Ethics · Hermeneutics · Investigate Magazine · Judging
Auckland STAANZ Conference: Eschatology and Pneumatology UPDATED
November 18th, 2009 10 Comments
The Systematic Theology Association in Aotearoa New Zealand (STAANZ ) are this week holding a conference in Auckland focusing on eschatology and pneumatology. What: STAANZ Conference on Eschatology and Pneumatology When: Thursday 19 November – Friday 20 November 9:00am-5:30 pm Where: Ponsonby Baptist Church, 43 Jervois Rd, Auckland Cost: $15 Pre-conference prayer will be held [...]
Tags: Eschatology · Ethics · Feticide · Kenneth Einar Himma · Pneumatology · STAANZ · Theology
Audi and the Infallibility of Religious Reasons
November 7th, 2009 6 Comments
In “Liberal Democracy and the Place of Religion in Politics”,[1] Robert Audi defends the liberal thesis that religious reasons should not be utilised in debate on issues of public policy. Instead he contends that “one should not advocate or support any law or public policy that restricts human conduct unless one has, and is willing [...]
Tags: Ethics · Philosophy of Religion · Religion and Public Life · Robert Audi
Sunday Study: The Bible and Rape – A Response to Michael Martin
September 27th, 2009 5 Comments
A little while ago I wrote a post criticising Michael Martin’s contention that the Bible commands a rape victim to marry her rapist, Does the Bible Teach that a Rape Victim has to Marry her Rapist? To summarise briefly, Martin cited Deuteronomy 22:28-29 and interpreted it as, Here the victim of rape is as treated [...]
Tags: Bible · Ethics · Hermeneutics · Michael Martin · Rape · Sexual Morality · Sunday Stu · Sunday Study · Theology
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Infantile Religious Morality
September 24th, 2009 71 Comments
In “Why Traditional Theism Cannot Provide an Adequate Foundation for Morality” Walter Sinnott Armstrong criticises William Lane Craig’s contention that theism, if true, provides an adequate foundation for morality. Armstrong contends that Craig’s position is “incredible”[1] and subject to a “cavalcade of devastating objections.”[2] He goes on to conclude that his criticisms do not just [...]
Tags: Divine Command Theory · Ethics · God and Morality · Patrick Nowell Smith · Philosophy of Religion · Richard Mouw · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Sunday Study: Interpreting the Sixth Commandment Part II
September 13th, 2009 11 Comments
In a previous post, Sunday Study: Interpreting the Sixth Commandment Part I, I discussed some translations of the sixth commandment of the Decalogue. I began with the King James Version (KJV), “thou shall not kill.”[1] I looked at problems with this translation most famously raised by Augustine. The New International Version (NIV) and New Revised [...]
Tags: Augustine · Ethics · Sunday Study · Ten Commandments · Theology
Contra Mundum: What’s Wrong with Imposing your Beliefs onto Others?
September 1st, 2009 29 Comments
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
Sunday Study: Abraham and Isaac – Did God Command the Killing of an Innocent?
July 26th, 2009 12 Comments
Perhaps the most infamous passage in the Hebrew scriptures occurs in Genesis 22:2, Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Of course, as anyone who [...]
Tags: Abraham · Abram · Ethics · Genesis · Isaac · John Hare · Kant · Kenneth Kitchen · Killing Innocents · Louise Anthony · Philip Quinn · Robert Adams · Stephen Evans · Sunday Study
Fisking Ian Hassall: The Arbitrary Ethical Reasoning on the Smacking Referendum
July 10th, 2009 41 Comments
Recently Dr Ian Hassall gave a presentation, on the upcoming referendum on section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, entitled: How did we come to have a law that supported hitting children? This presentation defends the thesis that mild physical punishment (smacking) is wrong and should remain illegal in New Zealand. In this post I [...]
Tags: Ethics · Moral Discourse · Smacking
