Archive for October, 2010
Should I Obey the Law? (Part 2)
Statement It’s okay to break the law in extreme circumstances. Q1 Analysis This is not a Q1 violation unless your criteria for determining what constitutes an extreme circumstance are in conflict with other beliefs or (possibly) if you believe that some laws should be obeyed just because they are laws. Q2 Analysis This is not [...]
Should I Obey the Law?
Statement If a law is wrong, it’s okay to break it. Q1 Analysis This is not a Q1 violation unless your criteria for determining when a law is wrong is in conflict with other beliefs or (possibly) you believe that some laws should be obeyed just because they are laws. Q2 Analysis This is not [...]
Should I Obey a Command from God?
Statement If God told me to kill someone, I would. Q1 Analysis This is not a Q1 violation if you think that divine command is sufficient justification to kill someone. Q2 Analysis This is a Q2 violation if you would blame someone for trying to kill you because they believed God wanted them to. Discussion [...]
Are Some Causes More Deserving than Others?
Statement We shouldn’t be spending millions of dollars sending probes to Mars when there are people starving right here on Earth. Q1 Analysis This may be a Q1 violation if you have an interest in pure science* or think you might benefit (even indirectly) from the space program. Q2 Analysis This may be a Q2 [...]
On the truth of the New Testament
Here is an argument that I frequently encounter (in one form or another): We know that the Gospels must be accurate because they were written within the lifetime of witnesses. If they were false, then witnesses would have come forward and declared them false. There are a number of general reasons that I find this [...]
Should War Have Rules?
Statement Some things are so immoral that they cannot be done even in times of war. Q1 Analysis This is not a Q1 violation unless you would consider doing one of these things to prevent a war from being lost. Q2 Analysis This may be a Q2 violation if you disagree with an enemy over [...]
Is There Such a Thing as a Just War?
Statement War is never the answer. Q1 Analysis This is not a Q1 violation so long as you honestly prefer all other circumstances to war and you aren’t defining "war" in an unusually narrow way (that is, you wouldn’t say something like, "That wasn’t war, it was self-defense.") Q2 Analysis This is not a Q2 [...]
Is Terrorism Moral?
Statement It’s sometimes justified to attack civilians in order to create fear and stop a greater evil. Q1 Analysis This is a Q1 violation if you think that ends do not justify means or you think it is immoral to kill innocents (unless you can successfully argue that the civilians you target are not meaningfully [...]
The Iliad: a parable
Joey was eleven and very precocious for his age. He loved to read more than anything, and gladly spent afternoons and evenings with his nose stuck in a book. One day, soon after Joey had finished reading the Iliad, he and his mother were driving in the car. “Mom?” Joey said. “If I ever have [...]
In: Essay · Tagged with: parable
Is Revenge Moral?
Statement If you hurt me, I’m going to hurt you back. Q1 Analysis This statement may be a Q1 violation if you think that two wrongs don’t make a right or that violence is never (or rarely) justified. Q2 Analysis This statement does not violate Q2 so long as you would not blame someone who [...]
