Category Archives: Ethics

To Be a Non-Person

Can you identify the context of this passage? To have a persona [to be a person] was to have a face before the law—which is to say, to be recognized as one possessing rights and privileges before a court, or as being able to give testimony upon the strength of one’s own word, or simply …

September 13, 2011 – 8:47 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics | Tagged | Comments (4)

And a little child shall lead them?

On a New Jersey school district’s summer reading list for middle and high school: one book depicting lesbian statutory rape, and another depicting a drug-fueled homosexual orgy. How did that happen? Call it the record-setting worst excuse ever for a bad policy! Chuck Earling, superintendent of Monroe Township Schools in Williamstown, N.J., told Fox News …

September 6, 2011 – 7:21 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)

Riots in England: Spiritual Collapse and a Prediction Tragically Fulfilled

Thirty-two years ago Josh McDowell addressed students at Campus Crusade for Christ’s Institute for Biblical Studies with a sobering message. Obviously humans have been inflicting violence on one another for as long as we’ve been around, but Josh had a prediction to add to that shared knowledge: that the nature of that violence was about …

August 15, 2011 – 12:51 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Life and Choices, The Faith, Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (10)

“Cerebration » Blog Archive » Crises in Somalia and Kenya”

“The United Nations estimates it will take $1.4 billion to save the lives of some 12 million people across the horn of Africa in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. The emergency is expected to persist for at least three to four months, possibly peaking in August and September.” [From Cerebration » Blog Archive » Crises …

August 15, 2011 – 9:12 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Deep Social Change, Ethics | Tagged | Comments Off

Jerry Coyne: Either Culpable Ignorance, Or Else … ?

Update again, 10/20/11: I bid a hearty welcome to visitors from Dr. Coyne’s website. (I appreciate the link, Dr. Coyne.) He seems to have a policy of not allowing my comments to remain on his site, except for those that he can twist to suit his own purposes, as I have indicated in my earlier …

August 4, 2011 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, New Atheism | Tagged , , | Comments (134)

“God Behaving Badly” by David T. Lamb

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series God and Genocide

Book Review God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? by David T. Lamb “How does one reconcile the loving God of the Old Testament with the harsh God of the New Testament?” Say what? You read it right. That’s exactly how David Lamb opens God Behaving Badly. A few …

July 24, 2011 – 8:19 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Bible, Ethics | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (9)

The Morality of Christian Exclusivism

The morality of Christian exclusivism: exclusivism-ly at First Things: Evangel.

June 10, 2011 – 2:41 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Evidences, Postmodernism/ Relativism, The Faith | Comments (24)

The Question of Slavery

Why doesn’t the New Testament condemn slavery? Is the Bible hopelessly behind on humane ethics? How could southern slaveholders say the Scriptures supported the practice? My article on The Question of Slavery has just been posted at BreakPoint.

June 7, 2011 – 8:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Deep Social Change, Ethics | Comments (7)

Who Cares Who Believes the Truth?

From Comment Number 180 on the long thread Why Should We Care Whether We Believe the Truth? I’d just like to comment at the close how interesting it was to see that no one actually seemed to disagree with this thesis: that atheism provides no objective grounds for the value of or our obligation to …

May 24, 2011 – 7:37 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, New Atheism | Comments (516)