Tag morality

Quote of the Day – Robert Bumbalough

I posted one of my SIN posts over at Debunking Christianity recently, and this comment was posted which I found pretty insightful:

“And, of course, such suffering, in light of an all-loving God, must be seen as necessary for some greater good.”

Should We Police Thoughts?

The other day, the CEO for Mozilla had to step down. This was due to influence from social media – a sort of power to the people. Basically, Mr Elch has held private views on gay marriage which have subsequently become public.

Christianity and Homosexuality Part 1

I am writing a post in reaction to something about which I was talking with my Christian friend (let’s call him Colin). We were talking about homosexuality and his approach to it given his Christian background. Some points were interesting and some I fundamentally disagreed with. Here are his views:

As according to the Bible, homosexuality is wrong.
This morality is grounded in God.
He is not homophobic and detests that label as it automatically halts any further informed discussion.
People can have genetic or environmental variables which help to influence a persons likelihood to homosexuality.
However, to commit to a homosexual act is an act of free will, and thus falls within the moral sphere.
As a result, it is not necessarily the disposition of being homosexual which is wrong, but the decision to act upon it.
He has no ‘problem’ with homosexuals and has / has had homosexual friends.
Hopefully I am not building up a straw man of his position, but it does demand some serious unpicking.

The Moral Life of Babies

Morality is not just something that people learn, argues Yale psychologist Paul Bloom: It is something we are all born with. At birth, babies are endowed with compassion, with empathy, with the beginnings of a sense of fairness. It is from these beginnings, he argues in his new book Just Babies, that adults develop their sense of right and wrong, their desire to do good — and, at times, their capacity to do terrible things. Bloom answered questions recently from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.

Transhumanism: The World’s Most Dangerous Idea? (Nick Bostrom)

So tonight I am attending a Tippling Philosophers get-together in Fareham, UK. We are discussing transhumanism. For those who don;t know, this is the idea (or movement for the idea) that we can adapt our bodies and cognitive abilities using technology to prolong our lives, choose our babies genotype and phenotype etc etc – the harnessing of technology to change and progress what we might (erroneously?) define as our humanity, biological or otherwise.

I have been commissioned a chapter on morality for Loftus’ new book “Christianity Is Not Great”

I am exceptionally grateful that John Loftus thought of me when shortlisting potential contributors to his latest anthology Christianity Is Not Great. Not only that, but my chapter on atheological morality, which I wrote a few months ago for him, was one of the chapters used in the proposal to Prometheus Books. And they have just accepted the project! Fantastic! Here is what John has just announced:

Evidential Problem of Evil – A highbrow threesome?

Well, it depends on your definition of highbrow, of course. But please check out the video of myself, Counter Apologist and Justin Schieber from Reasonable Doubts discussing the Evidential Problem of Evil, going through a ton of arguments and interesting points. It was really enjoyable and we hope you get out as much enjoyment as we did! Hopefully it won’t be the last.

William Lane Craig – “Consequentialism is a terrible ethic” – could he be more incoherent?

Craig has been involved in a series of discussions in Australia with Laurence Krauss regarding philosophy and science. Unfortunately, Krauss is no great philosopher which is what most of this discussion revolved around. However, both Craig and the annoying moderator claimed the “consequentialism is a terrible ethic” and that utilitarianism and consequentialism had been “renounced” by the Abrahamic faiths.