Tag: morality
-
Absurdity In Atheism And Incredulity Concerning Inquiry
It can often be entertaining (though ultimately it is really and truly sad) to observe unbelievers flinching at the utter absurdity of their own worldview when they are asked direct questions about even their most basic beliefs. For example, while being grilled on such topics as morality Dan Barker has been known to appeal to the audience and imply that his opponent is too dumb to know right from wrong as he did in his debate with Doug Wilson. Or, recall Barker’s debate with Paul Manata where he responds to Manata’s questions by saying, “You’re not serious about that” to …
-
An Objection That Does Not Count
Non-Christians can and do engage in activities using logic, science, and morality. Christians do as well. Presuppositionalists claim that these two groups can do so only because the world is what God says it is.
The argument advanced for this claim begins with one of the accepted activities mentioned above (logic, science, or morality) and illustrates how this activity is possible if the world is what God says it is. Then the accepted activity is shown to be inconsistent with what anyone else other than God says the world is.
While it might be said that the non-Christian cannot and …
-
An Internal Critique of Physicalism: Freedom and Responsibility
Peter Smith and O.R. Jones begin their discussion of causality and freedom by restating three points to provide a context for their discussion.
…First, it is a deeply entrenched presumption of science that all physical changes are to be explained entirely in terms of physical causes… (252)
Second, we humans belong to the physical world, at least in the sense that there is no more to our make-up than ordinary organic stuff… (252)
Third, we have claimed it as a virtue of our broadly functionalist account of the mind that it allows us to speak of mental states while still
-
Faint Inconsistencies and Heightened Sensitivity to the Obvious
One of the difficult things about arguing against a presuppositionalist is that the use of the presuppositional method necessitates an emphasis upon discerning contradictions within a worldview even when those contradictions are implied by a manner of speaking utilized by an individual. Two immediately apparent dangers associated with such an approach are that of finding contradictions where none exist and that of revealing one’s inconsistencies through the habit of speech. The latter may be spoken of in a positive sense and an example given in the case of a naturalist ascribing intentionality to nature. Heightened sensitivity to such error stems …
-
No Excuse For Homosexuality
Someone posted a comment on my previous blog article regarding homosexuality and had his post removed because of the profane language he unwisely chose to use. Unfortunately his post was full of the kind of hatred those who approve of homosexuality are often hasty to utilize and so it was difficult to separate his alleged “argument” from attack. Though I obviously will not be reposting the comment, I would like to point out a few serious problems with what he offered in “defense” of homosexuality as indicative of the lack of an apologetic the unbelieving view of homosexuality suffers from.…
-
“Homophobia” and Homosexuality
This is a conversation I had via the Internet with a homosexual atheist friend from my old school. He posted something online which listed some emotional examples of hate crimes against homosexuals and declared that homophobia is wrong. I decided to question him about his beliefs.
Me: I agree, of course, that the descriptions of how these people were treated is morally and emotionally disturbing. People are sick and hateful. I am glad that I was not raised to hate homosexuals. In the sense described here then, I certainly think that “homophobia” is childish and wrong.
The last line though, …