Tag Archives: New Zealand

Events

Upcoming debate on morality: Matt Flannagan vs. Ray Bradley

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News of an upcoming debate featuring Matt Flannagan from MandM.

Details:

Raymond Bradley and Matthew Flannagan will debate the topic “Is God the Source of Morality? Is it rational to ground right and wrong in commands issued by God?”

The debate will be held at the University of Auckland on Monday 2 August from 7-9pm in “The Centennial” 260 – 098 OGGB (the bottom level of the Business School) on 12 Grafton Rd, Auckland City.

Bradley is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy with areas of specialty in Philosophical Logic, Metaphysics, Logical Atomism; he has previously debated William Lane Craig, Edward Blaiklock and many other Christian scholars and describes himself as an older generation “new atheist”.

Matthew FlannaganFlannagan is an Auckland based Philosopher and Theologian with areas of specialty in Philosophy of Religion, Ethics and Theology; he has previously debated Bill Cooke, Zoe During and, of course, writes for this blog.

The format of the debate will be as follows:

  • Dr Bradley: Opening Comments [20 min]
  • Dr Flannagan: Opening Comments [20 min]
  • Dr Bradley: Reply to Dr Flannagan [10 min]
  • Dr Flannagan: Reply to Dr Bradley[10 min]
  • Dr Bradley: Closing Comments [7 min]
  • Dr Flannagan: Closing Comments [7 min]
  • Questions from the floor: [30 min]

And here is an article on the thought of the atheist Ray Bradley by Glenn Peoples. Glenn’s post is short and to the point – he excerpts the main argument from a post by Bradley against the moral argument and shows why it has no force.

And you can read more about William Lane Craig’s debate with Ray Bradley on Hell, too.

News

New Zealand pro-life club finally granted official status by university

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Good news from Life Site News.

Excerpt:

The University of Auckland pro-life group, Prolife Auckland, today announced their successful affiliation at the University of Auckland.

The announcement comes on the heels of the group’s recent overturning of a policy discriminating against pro-life groups at the university. Since 2002, anyone wanting to start a pro-life club on campus has had only one opportunity every 365 days, at an annual general meeting, to try and gain official club status, whereas any other club simply had to apply at a Student Forum, which takes place weekly.

[…]The pro-life group affiliated this afternoon at the Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) forum. Debate occurred over whether the pro-life group should affiliate, with those in favor arguing that all students should have the right to choose what they believe and to express their views on campus.

At least there is some good news, because the University of Calgary students in Canada are getting beaten up. I thought that Canada was more conservative than New Zealand? I guess not.

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News

Obama to nationalize student loans, how does that work in New Zealand?

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Story from CNS News. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

Excerpt:

A bill currently before the Senate would empower the Obama administration to nationalize the student lending industry, eliminating the federally subsidized private loans millions of university students rely on to finance their educations

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act – currently being considered by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee – would eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. FFEL loans are federally subsidized and make up approximately 80 percent of the student lending industry.

According to the Department of Education, 14.3 million of the 17.5 million student loans were federally subsidized for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Under Obama’s plan, the government would consume the entirety of this industry – a total of $103 billion in 2009-2010.

I wrote about the situation in New Zealand before. In New Zealand, they have a government-run system.

Excerpt:

Thousands of people with student loans are defaulting on payments, leaving the Government to chase hundreds of millions of dollars.

More than one in five borrowers – or 114,000 people – have overdue payments and thousands of students are leaving tertiary education with no qualification and big bills.

The Education Ministry’s student loan scheme annual report shows that $306 million in payments is overdue, a $100m increase from a year ago.

The substantial growth includes a big rise in the level of payments owed by people now living overseas, more than doubling to $114m.

New Zealand University Students Association co-president Sophia Blair said it was not surprising that students with loans were heading overseas and letting the bills mount. “You can earn higher wages [overseas].”

[…]Total student loan debt had reached $10.2 billion and is predicted to grow by an average of $875m a year to more than $20b by 2022.

The report also showed about 39 per cent of students who left tertiary education with a loan did so without achieving a qualification.

About 8000 students with loans who left study in 2005 had nothing to show for it by 2007.

Why can’t Obama take into account how radical leftist policies have worked in other countries? Let the free market work. Let people be responsible for their own decisions. Giving people things for free doesn’t make them take their education seriously. When someone pays out of pocket, they try harder, and they take serious courses to earn the money back. When a bank makes a loan, they actually care about getting the money back, so they may insist that students actually perform. On the other hand, the government is notoriously wasteful – it’s not their money. It’s your money.