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?” For the benefit of those who could not be there, who [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Nicholas Wolterstorff'
Matthew Flannagan’s Opening Statement: Bradley v Flannagan Debate
August 7th, 2010 10 Comments
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Canaanites · Capital Punishment · Chris Tucker · Debates · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · J J Finkelstein · Joe M Sprinkle · K Lawson Younger · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Philip Quinn · Raymond Bradley · Raymond Westbrook · Robert Adams · Walter Kaiser
Wolterstorff, the Canaanites and Hyperbole: A Response to Ken Pulliam
June 29th, 2010 45 Comments
Critics of Christianity often ask how can a good and loving God command the extermination of the Canaanites as is taught the Old Testament? A clear assumption behind this question is that the Old Testament teaches that God did in fact command the extermination of the Canaanites, an assumption which is based on a straight-forward [...]
Tags: Canaanites · Divine Command Theory · Genocide · Ken Pulliam · Nicholas Wolterstorff
Contra Mundum: Secularism and Public Life
June 1st, 2010 59 Comments
Legal scholar Stephen Carter stated, One good way to end a conversation – or start an argument – is to tell a group of well educated professionals that you hold a political position (preferably a controversial one such as being against abortion or pornography) because it is required by your understanding of God’s will. In [...]
Tags: Christopher Eberle · Contra Mundum · Doctrine of Religious Restraint · Investigate Magazine · Michael Tooley · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Philip Quinn · Religion and Public Life · Richard Rorty · Robert Audi · Stephen Carter · Terence Cuneo
Contra Mundum: Richard Dawkins and Open Mindedness
May 6th, 2010 140 Comments
The bold statement “Richard Dawkins opens minds” leaped out at me from the newsletter sitting on the University of Auckland’s Law Library counter. The article went on to sing the praises of Richard Dawkins and mentioned his book The God Delusion. On reading the piece one could be forgiven for concluding that Dawkins’ works are [...]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Atheism · Contra Mundum · Faith and Reason · Investigate Magazine · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Peter Van Inwagen · Richard Dawkins · Richard Swinburne · Science and Religion · The God Delusion · William Alston · William Lane Craig
Oxford Calling… Can you Help Glenn Peoples?
April 9th, 2010 11 Comments
The 18th Conference of the European Society of the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Oxford is on “Religion in the Public Square” and will feature my favourite philosopher (next to Matt of course) Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff and New Zealand’s own Glenn Peoples who blogs and produces brilliant podcasts at Say Hello to my [...]
Tags: European Society of the Philosophy of Religion · Glenn Peoples · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Religion and Public Life
Freedom, Science and Christianity: A Response to James Valliant Part II
February 18th, 2010 2 Comments
Recently Peter Cresswell published a guest post by James Valliant, which originally appeared on SOLO. In Freedom, Science and Christianity: A Response to James Valliant Part I, I addressed Valliant’s claims that science and freedom of religion were unanimously opposed by Christians and the success of science and freedom of religion in Europe was solely [...]
Tags: Aristotle · Christian History · Dark Ages · Enlightenment · Founding Fathers · James Valliant · Libertarianism · Liberty · Mark Murphy · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Peter Cresswell · Regine Pernoud · Rodney Stark · Science and Religion · SOLO · W.E.H. Lecky
Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part II
January 10th, 2010 24 Comments
In my previous post, Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I, I mentioned the position suggested by Alvin Plantinga and endorsed by Nicholas Wolterstorff that the passages in Joshua that appear to record the carrying out of genocide at God’s command, such as, “putting all the people to the sword”, “leaving no survivors”, [...]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Genocide · K Lawson Younger · Kenneth Kitchen · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Sunday Study
Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I
January 3rd, 2010 31 Comments
Critics of Christianity often claim that the book of Joshua teaches that God commanded genocide. Raymond Bradley for example states, In chapters 7 through 12, [the book of Joshua] treats us to a chilling chronicle of the 31 kingdoms, and all the cities therein, that fell victim to Joshua’s, and God’s, genocidal policies. Time and [...]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Brevard Childs · Canaanites · Genocide · Hermeneutics · Joshua · Kenneth Kitchen · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Raymond Bradley · Sunday Study · Theology · Walter Sinnot-Armstrong
Rangiora New Life College, Religion and Discrimination
December 13th, 2009 13 Comments
On Wednesday I flew to Christchurch for an interview regarding a religious education (RE) teaching position in a Catholic School. On having the interview and receiving the subsequent rejection email, it was clear what the reason I did not get the position was: I am a protestant, the school has a particular Catholic ethos that [...]
Tags: Campbell Live · Dave Crampton · Education · Idiot/Savant · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Ollie Sterrit · Rangiora New Life School · Religion and Public Life · Sara Etherington · Sexual Morality · Teenage Pregnancy
Epistemology 101: Science, Faith and Authority Part II
July 21st, 2010 12 Comments
This three-part blog series is essentially the talk I gave at the recent Clearing the Air Forum, which was entitled “Discovering Truth in the Synthesis of Science and Faith.” The audience was comprised of scientists, church leaders, journalists and other interested parties so this is a fairly lay introduction to epistemology. In my first post, [...]
Tags: AGW · Clear · Climate Change · Epistemology · Faith and Reason · Greg Dawes · John Locke · Keisha Castle-Hughs · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Richard Dawkins · Roy Clouser · Science and Religion