morality

A collection of 176 posts

atheism

Atheists and Morality: Defining Our Terms

Let's set the record straight. I'm tired of hearing stuff like this: “Then the Catholic Church is wrong.” Wrong answer. For a genuine atheist, there is no wrong. All you should say is that your opinion is different. Let me give you some of the chapter

Adam and Eve

Having a Chop at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

I recently posted on the incoherence of the narrative in Genesis concerning Adam and Eve and the eating of the apple. The upshot was this: Adam and Eve were expected to morally follow the moral proclamation of God in not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and

death

'God should decide' when baby dies

Should the baby be made to live or allowed to die? Let me set the context with something from the BBC: A woman fighting to stop doctors ending life support treatment for her sick 11-month-old son has told a judge that God should decide when he dies. Specialists at King&

morality

Utilitarianism, Pragmatism and Selfishness

I recently posted a link to a questionnaire that seeks to work out how utilitarian people are who take the test. It's very short, and has questions that some may want to think more closely about the wording. When I took it, I must admit that I experienced

ethics

How Utilitarian Are You?

There is a very short utilitarian questionnaire from the University of Oxford Practical Ethics blog. Check it out. I scored 45, which is somewhat utilitarian. http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/test/how-utilitarian-are-you-the-oxford-utilitarianism-scale/ Where do you score?

consequentialism

Quote of the Day: Illithid on Consequentialism

Sometimes things surprise me. Today, it was that, after all these months and perhaps years of See Noevo commenting here, he doesn't seem to have a working knowledge of one of the most common moral subjects on this blog. Consequentialism is a staple diet for conversation here, and

consequentialism

Problem of Evil: Heaven as Compensation or Moral Justification

The difference matters.

abstracts

The Pertinence of Nominalism to Religious and Philosophical Debates

I have written about nominalism quite a number of times, both here at the blog and in my books (most recently in Did God Create the Universe from Nothing? Countering William Lane Craig's Kalam Cosmological Argument). For those of you unfamiliar with the topic, let me briefly explain:

atheism

Guest Post by Franz Kiekeben: William Lane Craig and Altruism

Here is a guest post from philosopher Franz Kiekeben - thanks Franz for adding to the mix! In a debate with Paul Kurtz, William Lane Craig contrasted theism and atheism with respect to self-sacrifice. He claims that on the theistic view, “God holds all persons morally accountable for their actions.

consequentialism

Scientific Research, Consequentialism and a Touch of Foxglove

The other day, I wrote a post about the University of Bath Spa not sanctioning some research into transgender people and issues concerning reversal operations. This was labelled by many in the category of "political correctness" (a term that I do not at all like and don'

empiricism

Empiricism as Foundational

I have talked before about the empiricism vs rationalism debate that has taken place historically and presently in philosophical circles. Today, I am going to explore this a little further. As I said before... Rationalism The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that rationalists adopt at least one of three statements:

ethics

Virtue Signalling - Everybody Does It. All of the Time.

I am going to share my views on this apparently recent phenomenon called virtue signalling. Jeremiah Traeger recently wrote a super article on it here at ATP. He's good, that man. Let's define it again, as per Wikipedia: Virtue signalling [sic] is the conspicuous expression of

Ficino

Some Early Natural Law Arguments: Faculties, Functions and Organs

Here is the first part in a series of pieces by regular erudite commenter Ficino. This series will be looking at Natural Law Theory in its historical context. Over to Ficino: 1. Tertullian On the Soldier’s Wreath (c. 211 CE) In 211 C.E., Roman emperor Septimius Severus died

Debate

Alex O'Connor vs Frank Turek on the Moral Argument

This debate is worth a watch. There is a rare thing that happens before radio debates like this - some discussion of terms. I previously posted a video of the CosmicSkeptic on the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

Brexit

Regulation: Morality, London Fire, Trump and Brexit

In light of the fire at the Grenfell London tower block, regulation is the hot button topic. A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece on regulation and how, when governments seek to strip it back, as they are doing in both the US and the UK, they are

Economics

Morality: Regulation, Trump and Brexit

I give myself a wide remit here at ATP, and today I want to talk a bit about regulation. For free marketeers, libertarians and small government and tax right-wingers, "regulation" is a very dirty word. But what is regulation? I think when the word is used, people really

extremism

Sharia in the Light of Pluralism

Moral diktats are always on dodgy ground, since they depend on a perfect revelation. Both the Bible and the Qu'ran are thoroughly imperfect revelations. Issues about who wrote what, and when, why and how, are seemingly never satisfactorily answered. As far as he Qu'ran is concerned,

Debate

My Debate on Morality and God with Peter S. Williams (and Others)

Here is a reminder of a debate I had on morality and God some time back at the University of Southampton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kARrL7TW4 Let me know what you think. I was invited to University of Southampton by their Athiest Society to do a team debate

Debate

Kagan vs Craig: Still Quality

This is still a fantastic debate, primarily because of the format. After 40 minutes, they sit down and thrash it out, mano a mano. And Craig ain't so assured when it comes to actually discussing things on the fly. Do you need God for morality? In case you

equality

Christianity and Homosexuality Part 1

Here is something I wrote on some time ago, and I have expanded this repost here to include the remarks from the person I was debating with. See what you think. I am writing a post in reaction to something about which I was talking with my Christian friend (let’

consequentialism

16 Problems with Divine Command Theory

Divine Command Theory, or DCT, is the most prominent ethical framework adopted by religious thinkers in modern times. The idea for them is that it gets them an objective grounding for morality. DCT says that whatever God commands is necessarily good because God commands it, and this is based on

morality

"Very simple Johno. Thou shalt not kill." - Er, not so simple.

I was having another abortion debate on facebook, as happens far too often, mainly with a Catholic adversary. The thread was started with this meme: One of the side threads went like this: Him: Oh for the days when nuns wore habits and believed the ten commandments. Me: wow. Just

morality

Come to my Talk on Morality next Week

I am speaking to Dorset Humanists on Wednesday, next week, on the topic of morality. The details are on the attached poster. Come along if you can:

consequentialism

William Lane Craig - Taking to Task his Claim "Consequentialism is a terrible ethic"

Watch this, especially from 1:28:30. Craig was involved in a series of discussions in Australia with Laurence Krauss regarding philosophy and science. Unfortunately, Krauss is no great philosopher, and philosophy is what most of this discussion revolved around. However, both Craig and the annoying moderator claimed that "

morality

This should really challenge your eating habits

I have been having an ongoing conversation on the blog with "Philosophical Vegan" about an old piece I wrote and the philosophical underpinnings of eating meat or being a vegetarian or vegan. The conversation is still unfinished, but it is pretty apparent that it is hard to ethically