Let me tell you about Jones. He’s a very wealthy businessman, a respected philanthropist who has established an effective and impacting charitable foundation for disadvantaged youth, and a generous Christian who tithes north of 10% of his income to the church as well as an NGO that is providing clean drinking water to villages in […]
ethics
The Imprecatory Pretzel: Why it doesn’t work to use the Psalms to curse your enemies
Many Christians think that the imprecatory psalms provide models for how to curse one’s enemies. The hermeneutical assumption seems to be that the imprecatory psalmist’s declarations of hatred for his enemies and his desire that they be destroyed are sanctified and wholly correct statements and wishes. However, ask a person who takes that view when […]
Why do conservative Christians diminish the scourge of sexual assault?
The Christian Post recently published my short article “Pepe Le Pew stinks: The sexual violence of Looney Tunes in a #MeToo age.” The article attracted three comments, presumably from Christian conservatives (the primary readership of The Christian Post). Not surprisingly, the comments were all critical of my moral censure of Pepe Le Pew and his […]
Join My Kiva Team Today!
Over ten years, I have spent thousands of dollars to run this website and I have never taken any advertising dollars (except the very modest kickback I get from Amazon widgets). However, I do ask that you would please consider joining Kiva, a great micro-lending agency that allows you to lend money to business owners […]
What’s wrong with the scientific study of morality? An interview with Paul Rezkalla
Paul Rezkalla has an MA in Philosophy and Ethics from the University of Birmingham and an MA in theology from St. John’s University. He is currently working on a PhD in philosophy at Florida State University (with the esteemed Michael Ruse) and an MSc in cognitive and evolutionary anthropology from Oxford University. In this conversation, […]
Pepe Le Pew Stinks: The Sexual Violence of Looney Tunes in a #MeToo Age
I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons, the highlight of which was always one and a half hours of Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and the rest. Alas, Looney Tunes have not fared well in our age with many critics raising concerns about the violence of these zany cartoon shorts. […]
My Response to the Pinecreek-Doug-Dilemma
In “A street apologist puts me in my place” I provide a link to an extended critique of my critique of Bill Craig, courtesy of Pinecreek Doug. I’m laboring under some work deadlines at the moment so I asked my readers to view Pinecreek Doug’s extended critique and summarize the gist for me. Bilbo wrote […]
A street apologist puts me in my place
Here is a video by a self-described street apologist who critiques my critique of William Lane Craig on biblical atrocities. It was just uploaded in the last couple of days. I have viewed the first ten or so minutes to this point, and hope to listen to the rest later. Let me know what you […]
Four (or more) Steps to Making Sense of Biblical Violence
I was recently asked on Twitter how I deal with the problem of biblical violence, that is, the problem of God appearing to command and commend violent actions that appear to be evil. I responded with four points and while regular readers of this blog will likely recognize all four in my past writing, I […]
Off the Rails: Debriefing my Misunderstanding with Paul Franks
I had an interesting exchange with Paul Franks this morning, but alas it eventually ended up going off the rails. I’ve summarized the exchange below by reproducing the text of our tweets following my initial tweet. I’ll then conclude by offering my own diagnosis of how and why it went off the rails. The hope […]
A Meme About Immigrant Children and Humanity Lost
My friend sent me this meme offering a crazy juxtaposition. Before I tweeted it, I wanted to confirm that I was not being a purveyor of fake news. Did Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends really say that? And is that a real Dr. Seuss cartoon? Here is what I found. First off, yes, Kilmeade […]
On the ethics of transsexual surgery
Dave suffers from gender dysphoria and, as a result, he identifies as a woman. As a means to align his body with his self-understanding, Dave requests the surgical removal of his male genitals. Fred suffers from body integrity dysphoria and, as a result, he desires to be disabled. As a means to align his body […]
Transgender identity and transethnic identity
An American Caucasian woman may want to be Korean because of her love of K-pop and Korean culture. And so, she wears Korean clothing, learns K0rean language, colors her hair black, and even has double eyelid surgery and a nose job. But it doesn’t follow that she is Korean. Rather, she remains an American Caucasian […]
A simple illustration of the craven nature of the Republican party today
I just watched the MSNBC program Kasie DC in which the host, Kasie Hunt, interviewed Republican politician Rob Woodall. After Woodall defended Trump and dismissed the Mueller Report, Hunt asked him whether he had read the report. He replied that he had not. He had not even read a report that identified ten instances of potential attempts […]
