Tag Archives: Christian

Polemics

Can atheists ground objective moral values and duties, just like theists?

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Consider this article from Thinking Matters in New Zealand.

Excerpt:

There is an objection to the moral argument for God’s existence, specifically the premise which states the best explanation for the foundation for objective moral values and duties is God. It is the idea that moral values and duties can be plausibly anchored in some transcendent, non-theistic ground. That moral values and duties exist objectively, but as brute facts, not needing an explanation for their existence. They are sort of eternal unchanging ideas that are necessary features of the universe. This position we shall call Atheistic Moral Platonism, and there are three ways we could respond.

Click here for the three ways to respond.

I actually used to hold to Deistic Platonism before I became a Christian, and that’s all documented in my testimony. To learn more about this topic, here is my series on how morality cannot be rationally grounded by atheism, and the series includes links to lectures and debates for further study. The relationship between a cosmic designer and objective moral values and duties is the easiest topic in the world to discuss with non-Christians. It takes only a little preparation, compared to more difficult issues like scientific evidence and the historicity of the resurrection.

News

Judge rules Rifqa Bary must return to Ohio to be placed in foster care

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Pamela Geller reports in Newsmax. (H/T Muddling Towards Maturity)

Excerpt:

Last Tuesday, Oct. 27, she was returned to Ohio and placed in foster care in Franklin County. Eric Fenner, the executive director of Franklin County Children Services, said that he has “no reason to believe Rifqa wouldn’t be safe with her parents” — with the father who according to Rifqa said, “If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter . . . I will kill you.”

And even now in Ohio, Rifqa Bary’s civil rights are being violated. She is being held prisoner: She is not allowed use of the phone or the Internet, unlike thousands of other children in foster care. Why? What is her crime?

Wow! Foster care! That sounds like good news. But I thought the parents had to produce their immigration documents to get Rifqa released to Ohio.

Pamela writes:

After repeatedly being asked to produce their immigration documents and repeatedly failing to do so, and after I proved their illegal status and perjury on immigration forms at my Web site AtlasShrugs.com, Rifqa Bary’s parents risked being held in contempt of court.

So Rifqa’s father’s attorney, David Colley, made a deal with Bartholomew: The contempt of court charge would be dropped, and in exchange, Rifqa would be allowed to stay in foster care until she turned 18 — in other words, until she could be free of her parents.

Well, that’s where things stand now. Pamela has done an amazing job to protect Rifqa from a possible honor killing.

News

Australia considers bill to criminalize free speech by Christians

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From the Australian. (H/T Thoughts Out Loud)

Excerpt:

Australians who wear a crucifix to work or offer to pray for a patient in hospital could run foul of a charter of rights, according to a British legal expert who says its introduction in this country would trigger an attack on religious expression.

Barrister Paul Diamond said equivalent laws in Britain had intensified religious resentment and introduced a degree of uncertainty into the rule of law.

He cited the example of a workplace dispute at British Airways in which the company had tried to prevent an employee from wearing a crucifix while permitting other workers to carry Sikh ceremonial knives and wear turbans and Muslim head scarfs.

Mr Diamond said the secular ideology of the British Human Rights Act was being used to politicise the judiciary and eradicate “unacceptable religious viewpoints on same-sex, on women, on a whole range of moral issues”.

[…]He said one of his most frightening cases concerned a man known as David Booker who was threatened with dismissal for telling a co-worker that Christians opposed pre-marital sex and same-sex relations.

“She had asked him about his Christian faith. She complained and he was suspended and would have been sacked had we not intervened. It was a private sector employer interpreting their diversity policy to eliminate offensive Christian viewpoints from the culture.”

Here are some stories from the UK:

Canada has similar infringements on religious expression because of the anti-Christian Canadian Human Rights Act.

And bad things are already happening the United States.

My recommendation? Don’t vote for Democrats like Obama.