Ethics

From previous blogs we have noted the conclusion of Plantinga’s analysis: “that the existence of God is compatible, both logically and probabilistically, with the existence of evil; thus it solves the main philosophical problem of evil.”
Plantinga gives some space to considering another atheological approach that is now somewhat outdated, namely verificationism. As Plantinga explains:
This is […]

My last post summarising Plantinga’s argumentation was back in January. In our last “bite” Plantinga argued that the Free Will Defence succeeded in showing that the following four propositions are consistent:

God is omnipotent
God is wholly good
God is omniscient
Evil exists

Plantinga’s analysis of this concluded: “that the existence of God is compatible, both logically and probabilistically, with […]

Research by the Jubilee Centre entitled “Cohabitation in the 21st Century” is based on the life histories of almost 30,000 adults in Britain. Here are some of the striking conclusions:

“Contrary to expectations, although more than four out of five couples in Britain choose to live together before getting married, marriage remains the most likely eventual […]

 
During his 27 years of captivity on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela was inspired by a poem of defiance written by the English poet William Ernest Henley, a poem he used to strengthen the spirits of other prisoners. Indeed, the name of this poem became the name of a 2009 film that stars Morgan Freeman and Matt […]

It is not politically correct to talk about fear of going to hell as a motivation for ethical living. But Jesus had no such qualms. Indeed, Jesus says more about hell than anyone else in the Bible. Nor does he pull any punches:
Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such […]

Paul Grimmond makes a useful contribution to the abortion debate:
The normal arguments for ‘terminating’ a foetal life involve the fact that it is just a scrap of tissue, not a person. It is best to get rid of scraps of tissue that are going to cause everyone problems. But here’s the rub: what if the […]

In addressing the issue of euthanasia John McClean begins by laying down some foundations:

Unlike animals, all people are made in God’s image, so regardless of the state of their body or mind they have unique value which is not dependent on the pleasurability or utility of their lives. While it is humane to end the […]

In an article from the Daily Telegraph (May 26, 2008) the following positive portrayal of halal food was presented:
EVERY kid knows how to get what they want - and in Sydney’s west it was only persistent badgering that brought halal food to the school tuckshop.
The technique worked at Lurnea Public School, which has become the […]

I enjoyed reading Lionel Windsor’s notes on “The gospel and ageing” in a recent Briefing. He rightly observes that in our culture we are very negative about ageing because it represents the opposite of our core values:
We live in a society that puts a huge value on freedom, choice, fulfilment of desires, strength and independence. All these […]

Sam Sparro writes the following lyrics in his song Black and Gold:
If the fish swam out of the ocean
and grew legs and they started walking
and the apes climbed down from the trees
and grew tall and they started talking

_

and the stars fell out of the sky
and my tears rolled into the ocean
now i’m looking for a […]

For insight into popular self-absorbed ethics and the fear it involves, listen to the lyrics of The Fear as sung by Lily Allen:
I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and f**loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they […]

Today, I appreciated reading Paul Sheehan’s column in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Feminism’s failure to lend a hand.” He was commenting on a book about feminism (Living Doll: the Return of Sexism, by Natasha Walter) and a conference on feminism he attended at Sydney University. He found he could drive a truck through what was missing […]

It was way back on June 8 last year that we last revisited Plantinga’s repudiation of the common view that the reality of evil is at odds with the Christian affirmation of God as good, omnipotent and omniscient. Plantinga ends up with two propositions:
4. God is omniscient, omnipotent and wholly good.
5. God creates a world […]

Sartre’s The Reprieve covers eight days in the lives of various people in France before the signing of the Munich Agreement, soon followed by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Frenchmen are being called up for military service. In this context Sartre invites us to overhear Mathieu’s conversation with his brother Jacques:
Mathieu returned and sat […]

The latest example of blatant cheating in sport is by French captain Thierry Henry, in which he clearly handled the ball, thus enabling a goal to be scored which meant that in this year’s World Cup playoffs Ireland was eliminated and France went through. Ireland’s pleas to FIFA for the game to be replayed have fallen […]

In his article “Untying the knot” in Australian Presbyterian (October 2009) David Palmer summarises some of the findings of the Breakthrough Britain report released in July 2007:

Nearly one in two cohabiting parents split up before their child’s fifth birthday, compared to one in 12 married parents.
Three-quarters of family breakdown affecting young children now involves unmarried […]

Christians know that for them ethics or morality boils down to living under the Lordship of Christ. So Paul, introduces a long section on Christian morality, by urging:
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).
This is another […]

In a recent interview Michael Horton made the point that modern evangelical Christianity often uses as a key ethical principle “What would Jesus do?” He sees this as a disturbing movement away from the Gospel’s focus on what Jesus has done for us.
My mind immediately flicked to Romans, where there is tremendous stress, often much underestimated, […]

This morning Kevin Murray preached on 1 Corinthians 7. It was great to be reminded how this passage, concerning marriage AND SINGLENESS, follows on so naturally from what Paul has been saying in 1 Corinthians 6.
From 1 Corinthians 6:12 -7:40 Paul concerns himself with issues concerning sexual immorality. As Kevin rightly pointed out Paul’s morality is grounded in […]

As I was requested to do, I’ve been preparing a sermon on Mark 12:28-34, which I will preach to a group of Indonesian Christians on Saturday.  This, of course,  is the passage where a teacher of the law asks Jesus which is the most important of the commands and Jesus goes back to Deuteronomy 6:4, […]

Scientific research conducted at the University of Southern California has resulted in the claim that fast-moving virtual games adn online news feeds may be encouraging indifference to human suffering:
In a media culture in which violence and suffering become an endless show, indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in.
This research was published in […]

Bernie Power, a good friend of mine, gave me permission to reproduce this reconstructed transcript of his on air conversation with Jon Faine, host of the morning program on Melbourne’s 774 ABC. Here’s what Bernie emailed out to me and others:
Spindoctor segment on Jon Faine’s morning show on ABC 774 : Wed morning Oct 7th […]

Nigel Warburton, immediately before interviewing Marilyn McCord Adams, comments that there is no greater challenge to religious belief than the problem of evil. If there is an all-powerful, all-good God then why does he allow such terrible suffering in the world?
It is perhaps Warburton’s view that the problem of evil is the greatest challenge to […]

In James 5:12 we read:
Above all, my brothers, do not swear - not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.
Here James is simply quoting Jesus. See Matthew 5:33-37:
Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long […]

In Being and Nothingness. Sartre contends,
Values in actuality are demands which lay claim to a foundation.
He goes on to explain that:
[value] can be revealed only to an active freedom which makes it exist as value by the sole fact of recognizing it as such. It follows that my freedom is the unique foundation of values and […]

I’ve been reading K.K. (Khiok-Khng) Yeo’s discussion of “Paul’s Theological Ethic and the Chinese Morality of Ren Ren” in Cross-Cultural Paul (ed. Cosgrove et al.) and am finding it very difficult to understand how the concept of dao has helped mould Chinese culture(s). What follows are but ponderings.
Philosophical Daosim/Taoism is also termed daojia. Dao is […]

In the modern West human rights are often viewed as a means of achieving self-fulfilment and self-realisation. Along with this goes the idea that any social commitment is voluntary, the individual having the right or freedom to choose which of any such commitments he or she makes.
Paul warns Christians not to be conformed to this […]

In his study of Paul and American Individualism in Cross-Cultural Paul Cosgrove rightly sees the fundamental divergence between freedom as conceived by Paul and modern American (I would say largely Western) freedom as consisting in a basic difference over the purpose of a human life. However, this in turn is inseparably linked to a foundational […]

I must confess I have a lot of sympathy for Jeremy Bentham’s regard for natural rights:
Right… is the child of law; from real laws come real rights; but from imaginary laws, from laws of nature, fancied and invented by poets, rhetoricians, and dealers in moral and intellectual poisons, come imaginary rights, a bastard brood of monsters.
Natural rights is […]

Midgley rejects Dawkinism, which Dawkins erroneously assumes to be Darwinism, when Dawkins dismisses as preposterous the notion that there is any meaning or purpose to existence. Dawkins believes that there is no such thing as justice, no evil and no good.
Midgley argues that even in a purely naturalistic universe the terms “good” and “evil” have […]

In a stimulating article (”Wilde and Morality” in Philosophy Now 65 [Jan-Feb 08] 28-30) Peter Benson explores the relationship of Wilde’s classic The Portrait of Dorian Gray to morality. In the preface to this book Oscar Wilde provocatively claimed,
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or […]

In an extract from Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God the complaint is addressed that “those who believe in a God of judgment will not approach enemies with a desire to reconcile with them.” The argument here is that if “you believe in a God who smites evildoers, you may think it perfectly justified […]

On the way to work today I was listening to a Nigel Warburton podcast on Kant’s views on morality. Kant propounded a deontological, duty-based ethic. As we have noted in prior blogs Kant’s view of morality is reductionist, treating people as essentially rational beings rather than as full-orbed creatures. For Kant all that gives our […]

This morning as I traveled to work I listened to a podcast summarising utilitarianism. Some good points of criticism was made but I was struck by an illustration that was used which, it was thought, indicates some warrant for a utilitarian theory. The listener was asked to imagine that some had certain knowledge that a […]

In the July/August issue of Philosophy Now Matthew Pianalto helpfully summarises some of Aristotle’s thinking on virtue and happiness. Aristotle, along with other Greek philosophers, maintained that happiness involved the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues. When it came to moral education Aristotle did not believe people could learn how to live virtuously in a […]

“Happiness” for many psychologists refers to “subjective well-being”, how a person feels his or her life is faring; how satisfying one’s life is. On this basis many people might be described as being relatively happy.
Greek philosophers are sometimes represented as also promoting the pursuit of happiness. However, the relevant word is eudaimonia, which is better translated “human […]

Lately, much of what I’ve been reading bears on what it means to be human. Angus Taylor, philosopher and author of Animals and Ethics, argues that consistency requires excluding some humans from the moral community and including at least some animals in it.
A ghoulish story serves as the launching pad for his argument. A Transylvanian Count was […]

He’s a former commander of the Special Air Service. He was awarded the Military Cross in Vietnam. A hard man rubbing shoulders with hard men. I would think that Michael Jeffery, Governor-General of Australia, has heard his fair share of crudity in his time. So it’s a bit of a wake-up call when such a […]

In today’s Good Weekend I was fascinated to read about brain scientist Susan Greenfield’s theory about the influence of IT on young brains. As explained by John Cornwell, she argues that
The more we play games the less time there is for learning specific facts and working out how those facts relate to each other. This […]

Traditionally, many have described Australian cultural identity in a way that stresses and often even encourages self-reliance. Russell Ward speaks of the myth of the “typical Australian”:
a practical man, rough and ready in his manners and quick to decry any appearance of affectation in others. He is a great improviser, ever willing to ‘have a […]

I recently came across a brilliant analogy used by C.S. Lewis. Observing the popularity of strip clubs he commented:
Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just […]

In today’s Sun-Herald Miranda Devine has written an excellent article entitled “Shaking the tree: flora and fauna v humans” (p69). She begins with an elderly woman reducing a child to tears when she railed against her for “damaging” a coral tree and threatened to call council rangers. The mother responded with letters to the paper […]