Archive: November, 2010
The intrinsic value in learning to be good
JD is sympathetic to my view of evil as being redeemed in God’s good universe, but he has a reservation: “The Book of Revelation foretells a future existence in which there will be all these marvelously rich things like life and sentience and mind but with no death, sorrow or crying. If God is able [...]
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Would you rather be a bacterium? A rejoinder to the problem of evil
Silver Bullet has ably expressed the common atheistic retort that this creation simply cannot be the product of a loving and powerful God because there is just too much evil afoot. It is a serious argument. Indeed, it strikes me as the most significant argument against theism, bar none. And yet I also believe it is [...]
Read moreCould God command evil for a greater good?
Silverbullet presents two scenarios: Scenario 1: God allows Fred to kill Suzie because of some greater good but the killing of Suzie is nonetheless evil. Scenario 2: God commands Fred to kill Suzie as a devotional act of commitment to God which leads to some greater good, but the killing of Suzie is nonetheless evil. [...]
Read moreMeditation on yellow toilet water
This past summer my daughter and I visited what must surely be the lamest tourist trap in Alberta. I won’t say what it was, but I will say that snapping this picture was the high-point. After I had gotten over the irony it actually made a disturbing amount of sense. Why not supply toilets with [...]
Read moreRandal’s Saturday evening movie recommendation: Requiem
Anneliese Michel was a young German Catholic who reported being tormented by demons. Initially she reported hearing demonic voices telling her that she would be damned. But it didn’t stop there as her behavior became increasingly bizarre: she reportedly ate pieces of coal and spiders and sunk into a world of depression and paranoid delusion. Then, after [...]
Read moreAn argument for Christian meatatarians to consider
Every couple months a church I know puts on a social event called “Men and Meat” where all the chaps in the church get together, consume copious amounts of meat and, er, beat their chests? The event reflects a troubling notion that masculinity is tantamount to a machismo that, among other things, is expressed in [...]
Read moreIs eating turkey morally justified?
Since my American friends are enjoying their Thanksgiving turkey this evening, I thought it a good time to raise Gary Francione’s argument for vegetarianism (veganism actually). Francione is a well known animal rights activist, though something of a pariah in some circles because he disagrees sharply with other leading theorists in the movement like Tom [...]
Read moreDid God raise up Bin Laden?
The question is repugnant not only on the surface but all the way down to its very core. It presumes a moral framework that is utterly alien to my way of understanding the universe. And yet it is a question that kept bubbling to the surface as I read Clay Jones’ essay “We Don’t Hate Sin [...]
Read moreThree theses on devotional child killing
The article I presented at the Atlanta SBL meeting, titled “‘I want to give the baby to God’: Three theses on devotional child killing” is now available! This is the biggest release since Gran Turismo 5! So to read and/or download the paper you can click here or go find it in the “Academic Papers” [...]
Read moreI want to know what evil is
The critics never liked Foreigner much, but then their mullet-wearin’ Camaro-drivin’ fans never liked the critics much. And really, who could resist the infectious drive of an arena-grade power ballad like “I want to know what love is”? Although Lou Gramm may have been asking what love is, I think he had a reasonably good [...]
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