You are browsing the archive for morality.

Paul Melanson: Bogus Charlatan

February 18, 2012 in Atheism, Catholic Church, Education, Ethics, Law, Morality, Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Religious Freedom, Religious Persons, World Issues

Readers of my blog may recall that back in December of 2011, Paul Anthony Melanson, owner of La Salette Journey, who very clearly did not bother to do any research whatsoever with respect to who I am or the actual extent of my writing. In his post dated December 5, 2011, Melanson accuses me of misrepresenting both my identity and the nature of my personal position on such issues as religion. I tried leaving numerous comments on Melanson’s site in response to his post, but Melanson’s cowardly ways kept him from allowing the comments to be posted and also kept him from responding in any manner to these comments or the post that I wrote in response to his comments. I had given up on ever hearing from Melanson, then wouldn’t you know it: earlier today I realized that Melanson has written yet another post about me.

Paul Anthony Melanson

Paul Anthony Melanson

The purpose of this post is to portray me as someone who believes roman catholics should not be entitled to a voice in the public realm. He then adds, “Maybe he would like to stick Catholics in concentration camps?“ But where Melanson gets these notions is beyond me. As we shall see, my simply never having said something or advocated something in no way restricts Melanson’s ability to claim that I said or did x. I would now like to address the issues that Melanson raises within the body of his post. Read the rest of this entry →

The War on Christmas & Christianity’s Privileged Position

December 23, 2011 in Atheism, Belief, Catholic Church, christianity, Ethics, Morality, Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Religious Persons, Social Justice

Jack Kerwick recently wrote a post for the website The Moral Liberal, titled Christianity, Christmas, and the Grinch’s Unsuccessful War, in which he claims “christophobes” are launching a war on Christmas, albeit a war he considers to be completely ineffectual, not to mention inappropriate. The war on Christmas, he argues, fails because its opponents lack the grit and the intelligence required to be successful on this front. This war on Christmas is also inappropriate, he argues, because christianity has and is entitled to a privileged position in society, and thus an affront to Christmas is an affront to christian and the respect we are to show for this religion.

Burning Christmas Tree

Burning Christmas Tree: Source Flickr MattWH72182

In order to demonstrate that Kerwick is nothing but an alarmist charlatan, Read the rest of this entry →

Understanding Oxytocin: The Morality Molecule?

November 6, 2011 in Atheism, Belief, Empathy, Morality, Philosophy, Reason

chemical structure of oxytocin

Image via Wikipedia

A couple of days ago I was fortunate enough to come across a video on TED.com titled Trust, morality — and oxytocin, given by Paul Zak. Zak begins his talk by explaining that he is obsessed with morality and understanding why people act morally: when he began this research he wasn’t just interested in knowing that ‘the brain makes us moral’ – he wanted to know if there was a morality molecule. Now, after ten years of research, Zak wants to tell us that he has good reasons for asserting that there is a morality molecule, and that it is called oxytocin. Read the rest of this entry →

William Lane Craig Debates Peter Millican

November 3, 2011 in Atheism, Belief, bible, christianity, Ethics, Faith, Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Religious Persons, Science, William Lane Craig

Image via Wikipedia

English Philosopher Peter Millican
On October 17, 2011, William Lane Craig (WLC) kicked off his Reasonable Faith Tour in the United Kingdom by debating Stephen Law at Westminster Central Hall; a debate which I discussed and analyzed here on October 23. But on October 21, 2011, WLC debated Oxford University professor of philosophy Peter Millican (PM) at Birmingham University‘s Great Hall. With over 1000 people in attendance, WLC and PM debated the existence of god…kind of.

And this ‘kind of’ really speaks to some of my fundamental challenges with debates. Read the rest of this entry →

An Angry Christian Responds

October 29, 2011 in abortion, Atheism, Belief, christianity, Education, Ethics, Faith, god, Invalid Belief, islam, judaism, Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Religious Persons, Richard Dawkins, Valid Belief

Yesterday I published a post regarding the pro-life protest occurring in Ottawa: Forty Days For Life, titled Forty Days For Life, Ottawa: My Report. I have received a couple of responses thus far, and one of them was so inane I decided that, instead of providing a private reply to him that I would make it the content of this post; after all, I do enjoy highlighting ridiculousness. The first set of asterisks below indicates the beginning of Garry H’s reply, and the second set of asterisks indicates the beginning of my reply to him. Read the rest of this entry →