Ethics and Morality

A collection of 146 posts

Ethics and Morality

Scientology isn't on trial—but yes, it is

CW: Sexual assault and harassment Over the years, Scientology has skillfully avoided open challenge, often operating in clandestine ways, well under the radar. But there is no escaping the bright lights and media attention of a huge court case, and for Scientology, the Danny Masterson rape trial is huge. It

Ethics and Morality

Beyond carrot-and-stick morality

OnlySky · Beyond carrot and stick morality | Jonathan MS Pearce Sarah looks after vulnerable children on weekends at a children’s sheltered home. During the week, she trains to be a social worker. In her early thirties, she is still feeling her way, looking for fulfillment. She doesn’t believe in

Biblical Exegesis

Jim Dailey's Compassionate Lessons on Child and Animal Suffering

Jim Dailey, the Catholic apologist's unquestioning best friend, says some real odd things. And by odd, I really mean morally abhorrent. I was recently talking about the moral obscenity that is the Exodus story, and particularly the plagues, when Dailey attacked my questioning of the morality of the

Biblical Exegesis

Exodus Sidebar: The Exodus Story Is Morally Obscene

As you will know, I have been running a series debunking the Exodus account and, in fact, this has now become a huge book project, co-authored with archaeologist Rebecca Bradley and with the foreword to be written by Assyriologist Dr Joshua Bowen. I am presently writing a chapter on the

consequentialism

Well That Escalated Quickly: Knowledge and Consequentialism Discussed

So yesterday I posted a piece being very critical of Islam as a religious theology (in the context of teaching RE), just as I have spent 10 years doing with Christianity. The comments thread exploded and, I have to say, the conversation was really pretty good. There were lots of

Problem of Evil

Animal Suffering, William Lane Craig, and Christian Apologetics

Animal suffering is a thorn in the side of Christian apologists because no theodicy adequately justifies its existence. This is due to the fact that most theodicies revolve around the pain and suffering of humans and attach the blame for such suffering solely to humans themselves. In some way, they

evangelicalism

Josh Duggar Arrested by Feds

Reality TV star and all-round awesome conservative evangelical has been arrested. And it looks like it could be serious, considering it's the feds. People.com report (See the link for the whole piece): [caption id="attachment_34132" align="alignright" width="253"] Washington

fairness

'Your Idea of “Fair” Does Not Equal God’s Fairness'

After my post debating fairness with Paul Hoffer, another Catholic commenter, Jim Dailey, stated this rather problematic claim: I think your argument falls apart where you presume that your idea of “fair” = God’s fairness. You are a parent. Do you think you are “unfair” to one of your children?

extremism

Martyrs, Terrorism and Hypocrisy

I'm just finishing a book that I have previously declared as one of the most important books I have ever read, even though at the time I had not finished it! I still very much believe this. The book is Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st

daniel dennett

Hard-Incompatibilism vs Hard-Determinism

As I have mentioned, I am presently reading a book by Gregg Caruso and Daniel Dennett called Just Deserts: Debating Free Will [UK]. Sometimes I wonder what to label myself as in terms of the free will debate because it all depends on what you define by the term "

heaven

Pearced Off! #13 - Heaven is Compensation Not Moral Justification

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

consequentialism

All the Options to Explain Suffering

Quality commenter here, 3lemenope, recently provided us with his idea of the range of reasons that can be given to explain suffering in light of OmniGod: 1. Suffering is a lesson 2. Suffering is deserved 3. Suffering is a means to some other endThat's it. None of the

God's characteristics

God Cannot Be Perfect Because Intrinsic Perfection Does Not Make Sense - REDUX

This has been brought up a number of times recently so I thought I would recycle some old posts on the topic. I am reposting this article as it is good to get previous writing seen by a new audience: So in a [not so-] recent post I was talking

Philosophy of Religion

God: Responsible for the Good but Not the Bad

Here is a problem that is ubiquitous in the world of theism: God is responsible for the good things we do or that exist in the world but we are responsible for the bad. Whether we look at butterflies and mountains, or someone doing charity in the world or preaching

God's characteristics

Pearced Off! #9 - Why Don't We Photosynthesise?

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

Crime & Punishment

Mano Singham on The Unnecessary Science

Mano Singham, over at Freethought Blogs, has recently kindly reviewed a book I edited by Gunther Laird, The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis od Natural Law Theory (UK). The book is particularly prevalent now as Natural Law Theory forms the foundation upon which conservative lawyers, lawmakers and justices stake their

morality

What Makes a Person Good or Decent?

This is a guest post from Cynthia, a little muse to get you thinking over your cup of tea, of coffee, as to what denotes "good" behaviour in society, as to whether conformity is a driving factor. Thanks to her, and here it is: There’s a quote

Aquinas

The Problems of Pure Act

This is a guest post from Gunther Laird, whose superb new book The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (UK), a devastating critique of Ed Feser, Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law Theory, is out now. Over to Laird: The philosopher Edward Feser, in most of his published

Aquinas

The Unnecessary Science

The Unnecessary Science: A Critical Analysis of Natural Law Theory (Onus Books) is a cracking book tackling the work of Edward Feser in his defences and use of Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle in trying to establish natural law theory and its connected areas of essentialism and so on. It is

heaven

Quote of the Day on the Morality of Those Seeking Heaven

I will be expanding on this, but this point from a regular astute commenter is exactly one that I have touched upon here: Heaven & Hell Stop You From Genuinely Morally Evaluating But if you can't be bothered to read that, read (((J_Enigma32)))'s recent comment:

COVID crisis

Personhood vs Bodily Autonomy - the Central Arguments of Pro-Life Advocacy

Anthrotheist made a strong point on another thread concerning what the central argument should be in the abortion debate: The abortion debate isn't about personhood or whether or not a nonviable fetus is a human being. That angle is purely a red herring introduced by the pro-life movement

consequentialism

Pearced Off! #3 - God Is a Consequentialist

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

belief

Pearced Off! #2 - Doxastic Voluntarism

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

God's characteristics

Should Atheists Bring Children into the World? Should Christians Murder Their Babies?

These are the sorts of questions you should be discussing around the dinner table with your children of a Sunday afternoon… Jayman, a Christian commenter here on occasion, pushed back on a recent article I posted concerning William Lane Craig's position on apostates. * Craig on Terminating Would-Be Apostates

morality

Quote of the Day: 3lemenope on Rabbis and Morality

This was a comment in reply to my piece on William Lane Craig and an issue with apostates. I like the parable aspect to it: The thing that really borks the instrumentality argument is the resulting consequence of apostasy (i.e. eternal suffering). Without that bit, it's perfectly