morality

A collection of 176 posts

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

apostasy

Craig on Terminating Would-Be Apostates

Here is a recent question to William Lane Craig on his Reasonable Faith website: Hi Dr Craig, I've been studying the Perseverance of the Saints and I found your paper on the subject very thought-provoking. I have been wrestling with this subject as of late and there appear

morality

Religious Symbolism, Semper Fi and Virtue Signalling

I wrote some time ago, when you couldn't have a conversation with someone even slightly right of centre without being accused of virtue signalling, that everyone virtue signals. Almost all the time. In the clothes you wear, the music you listen to over-loudly, in the politics you spend

faith

The Value of Theology (and Monks): Is It Morally Optimal?

Sometimes, I think too much. And here might be an example. Okay, so this might depend on your moral value system in the first place. Let's take the faith vs works/deeds argument. Does faith in JesusGod get you into heaven (or simply please God), or is it

moral psychology

Religion, Psychology & Morality: Most People Aren't Very Nice

I've come to the conclusion that, after many long years of thinking and experiencing, rather more often than originally suspected, people aren't very nice. Let me see if I can qualify this. Most people are quite nice. They are nice enough to those around them: their

consequentialism

The US Political Landscape Crumbles; Consequentialism Reigns Supreme

Holy cow. Where to start. I know this is "supposed" to be a blog concerned with atheism and religiosity, but how can I not comment on the ongoing sh!tstorm that is US politics? There are so many little areas to talk about that this piece could be

consequentialism

"The Capture", Post-Truth, Morality and the Torturer's Defence

I have just finished binge-watching the BBC's rather excellent The Capture and it is well worth investing the time in. I presume that for my American friends it will be available on some network or another, most probably BBC America. The context of the show is the police,

meaning

God's Morality or Meaning Is Merely Subjective

God is supposedly some kind of ethereal disembodied mind. Except when he's not. What this means is that he is a mind like our minds (since we are made in the image of God), just a lot better. He is the best mind there is (apart from when

Demographics of Religion

Religion, Atheism, Authoritarianism and the In-Group

Aggressive behavior does not appear to be strongly related to religiosity, although those with higher religiosity self-report as being less aggressive than those with lower religiosity. Similarly, as will be covered in greater detail in the following chapter, the nonreligious have the lowest levels of racial, ethnic, and sexual minority

Divine Command Theory

On Divine Command Theories

Christians are often quick to accuse atheists of having no grounding to their moral frameworks; however, the reality is that their own groundings are fraught with terminal issues. One such problematic moral framework is Divine Command Theory. The basic premise is this: morality does not exist independently of God, it

morality

What Being a Good Person Means Is Harder To Define than You Might Think

I have talked several times before about the Netflix show, The Good Place. It's a great show that popularises philosophy and packages it for the mass market. This can only be a good thing, in my eyes. As the show comes to an end, the shows creator talks

Biblical Exegesis

God Hates His Own Designed Creations: Animals

God appears to really hate non-human animals. Which is an odd thing considering he designed and created them. We know that he hated animals because he pretty much told us so and acted with utmost contempt for their existence. Let me remind you of the famous case of Noah'

evolution

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 3)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

Adam and Eve

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 2)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

consequentialism

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 1)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

evolution

A Dialogue: Response to “Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork” by J. Pearce

As you will know if you have been reading this blog over the last week, I am presently involved in a dialogue/debate with Guy Walker over human morality and from where it has come. I've so far written two pieces in response to a comment he made

evolution

Making Moral Claims: Evolution and Other Animals

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” - attributed to Oscar Wilde Discuss... Five centuries later, we remain embroiled in debates about the role of religion in society. As in Bosch's days, the central theme is morality. Can we envision a world

abstracts

Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork

This post was recently posted on Facebook by someone I know and I was added to the link. I want to deal with this here because it is not only something this other person does all the time, but it is a really common occurrence when arguing about morality and

evangelicalism

Is Evangelical Christianity Sociopathic?

There is a decent article in the Huffington Post that grapples with this question. At first, I thought it would be a reactionary piece, but it is a thought-evoking piece that had me agreeing. It opens with giving a quick summary of sociopathy before giving a few examples of such

evolution

The Evolution of Morality and Theistic Evolutionists

"It wasn't God who introduced us to morality; rather, it was the other way around. God was put into place to help us live the way we felt we ought to." - Frans de Waal In my previous article, I wrote about how morality (or at

evolution

Morality as Evolved; What about God?

I am first going to furnish you with an excerpt from Robert Sapolsky's Behave [UK here] before discussing the content within a theological context. Of course, what Sapolsky has to say is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it serves s a good introduction to the topic. AGAIN WITH

morality

Paedophilia: Potential Lack of Consequences to a Design Action

Today, I'm going to talk about moral consequentialism as an ethical framework as well as paedophilia, partly because it's a real motive subject that gets people engaged and enraged. I recently bought a Stacey Dooley show on BBC iPlayer - she's rather like Louis

determinism

Determinism and Moral Responsibility

Free will and determinism have been back on the blog menu over the last week or so. One commenter (Michael) asked me about morality/moral responsibility and determinism. I've written about this before and this piece is broadly taken from a previous blog article with a few additions.

morality

Power Does Not Create Moral Value

This is a guest post from a philosophically inclined friend of mine from Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub, Rhys Chellow. Enjoy. Nietzsche is the religious apologist’s atheist; they agree on so much. Listening to debates about morality, you can hear the apologist refuse any derivation of morals and values