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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Peter Singer'
Thinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part One
August 24th, 2022 Comments Off on Thinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part One
Tags: Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · John Stuart Mill · Peter Singer · Robert Adams
Erik Wielenberg and the Autonomy Thesis: Part Three Standard Objections to the Autonomy Thesis, Human Rights and Dignity without God
March 25th, 2017 1 Comment
In my last post I looked at Erik Wielenberg’s response to the objection that, in the absence of God, people lack compelling reasons to comply with morality’s demands. A second objection Wielenberg briefly addresses is that without certain theological doctrines, one cannot provide a plausible basis for human rights and dignity. Wielenberg, here again, takes Craig […]
Tags: David Boonin · Erik Wielenberg · Infanticide · Loius Pojman · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Peter Singer · Rights · William Lane Craig
Marquis and Ideal Desires
July 25th, 2013 1 Comment
In response to my post Peter Singer Human Dignity and Infanticide, Ben Jury offers some astute comments: “I agree with you, that Peter Singer does not motivate his account of ideal desires. However, I think there is a way to motivate it as follows: Marquis objects to Singer’s account because he thinks there is an alternative […]
Tags: Ben Jury · David Boonin · Don Marquis · Ethics · Peter Singer · Thomas Carson
Peter Singer on Human Dignity and Infanticide: Part Two
December 19th, 2012 5 Comments
This is the second half of the paper I presented to the the Evangelical Philosophical Society Annual Meeting in Milwaukee three weeks ago. It is part of a two-part post series; make sure you have read part one Peter Singer on Human Dignity and Infanticide. II. Marquis’ Critique In my previous post I sketched Singer’s desire account […]
Tags: Don Marquis · Ethics · Evangelical Philosophical Society · Human Dignity · Infanticide · Milwaukee · Peter Singer
Peter Singer on Human Dignity and Infanticide: Part One
December 5th, 2012 14 Comments
This is the first section of the paper I presented to the the Evangelical Philosophical Society Annual Meeting in Milwaukee two weeks ago. Several people have asked me to post it on MandM. It will appear as a two-part post series. Christian theism has traditionally taught that human beings have equal dignity and worth, a moral […]
Tags: David Boonin · Evangelical Philosophical Society · Human Dignity · Infanticide · Milwaukee · Peter Singer
Contra Mundum: Dawkins and Secular Hypocrisy
July 7th, 2012 105 Comments
When I was a non-Christian I was forever hearing about how Christians are hypocrites. When I converted to Christianity at 17, one thing that struck me is how often these charges were often a case of the pot calling the kettle black. While there is undoubtedly some hypocrisy within the church, it is also pervasive […]
Tags: Contra Mundum · Investigate Magazine · Kirk Cameron · Peter Singer · Richard Dawkins · Secularism · 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.





IS A FETUS A HUMAN BEING? Part one: Viability
June 7th, 2019 1 Comment
This is one of a series of posts based on a class I teach for level 3 NCEA Religious Studies. In the last few posts we saw that most of the Christian religious tradition sketched the following argument against feticide; Premise [1] Killing a human being without justification violates the law of God. Premise [2] […]
Tags: Abortion · David Oderberg · Feticide · Michael Tooley · Peter Singer · Susan Sherwin · Viability