Stand Firm For Truth
Ethics
What does it mean to be human? At one point is personhood achieved or lost? Check out this slideshow for some info on the abortion issue. Survey of the Abortion issue
Christianity & Violence: Are they compatible? – William Lane Craig
Links:
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics
PHI 110 Ethics
Importance of Presuppositions
1. Claim: Thou shalt not murder
*The argument itself
2. Premises: Sixth Commandment
*The support of the argument
3. Warrants:
*Unstated assumption
4. Presuppositions
*What you assume to be true
Q# What is the basis of morality?
Why do humans have a universal consciousness?
1. Natural Law – Plato and the Greeks
What is the basis of morality?
2. Cultural Relativism – “cultures determine what is wrong and what is right.”
OR
“The belief that truth and morals are relative to one’s culture”
Postmodernism/Relativism
“I can find no ultimate basis for ‘ought.’” – Mihailo Markovic
“Human beings may, and do, make up their own rules.” – Max Hocutt
“In those days…everyone did what was right in his own eyes” – Judges 21:25
Noebel, p.138-139.
What is the basis of morality?
3. Individual Relativism – “My truth may be different than your truth.”
4. Moral Relativism – Morals are relative to the individual and the situation
Postmodernism/Relativism
Big Question:
“If there is no objective moral reality, then why concern ourselves with ethical issues?”
David Noebel, Understanding the Times (Manitou Springs, Summit Press: 2006), 156.
Postmodernism/Relativism
*Our word against your word
*No objective basis upon which ethics are grounded
Q# Is Postmodernism/Relativism self-defeating?
Richard Rorty says that it is the wrong question to ask
= PM/Rel. is not SUBJECT to logic or reason.
Postmodernism/Relativism self-defeating?
“There are no moral/ethical absolutes.”
Q# Logically self-defeating statement?
Q# If Relativism is true then:
“Relativism is true SOME OF THE TIME.”
Postmodernism/Relativism self-defeating?
Q# How can there be moral responsibility?
-Honesty
-Fairness
-Equality
-Loyalty
-Courage
-Reliability
-Just
-Sincere
Q# How will society fare if there are no moral responsibilities?
What is the basis for morality?
5. Nihilism – Nietzsche “ubermench”
*The will to power
“The Transvaluation of All Values”
No God, no morality, no purpose, no hope…except for Raw Power
What is the basis of morality?
6. Apostle Paul (Christian Theism) – “For when the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” Romans 2:14-15
= Ethics are grounded in the nature of God
Relativism
1. Cognitive relativism (truth) – Cognitive relativism affirms that all truth is relative. This would mean that no system of truth is more valid than another one, and that there is no objective standard of truth. It would, naturally, deny that there is a God of absolute truth.
2. Moral/ethical relativism – All morals are relative to the social group within which they are constructed.
3. Situational relativism – Ethics (right and wrong) are dependent upon the situation.
http://www.carm.org/what-relativism
Examples
Suttee
Examples
Ancient Assyria
Examples
Third Reich (Nazi Germany)
Examples
Child molestation
*Biological Determinism
Examples
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
there are questions about morality:
General normative ethics
What are the basic standards of morality?
What are the differences between “right” & “wrong”?
What is the nature of moral virtue?
Ethics is a branch of axiology, & it has its own sub-branches:
Normative Ethics
General – the attempt to define the basic principles, standards, & rules of morality
Applied – the application of moral principles, standards, & rules to specific moral problems
Human Rights
Q# Where do they come from?
Pure Democracy – Rights come only from government
*The “Ostracon” in Athens
Lincoln “A government that can give you everything can also take everything away.”
Human Rights
Plato – Slave and master and the “Might Makes Right”Plato: Slavery and Freedom
Opposed enslavement of fellow Greeks
Believed that “nature produces a ‘slavish people’ lacking the mental capacity for virtue or culture, and fit only to serve.”
Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason (New York: Random House, 2005), 26.
Human Rights
2. Aristotle - Slavery video
3. Romans Empire
*Gladiatorial games
The monk Telemachus
Post-Edict of Milan (313 C.E) Constantine “Christianized” pagan Rome
Emperor Honorius -
*Stoning or the Sword
http://havensc.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/a-little-unknown-monk-telemachus/
De-sensitivity or Depravity?
Or are they both similar? Do each support the other?
4. Founding Fathers – “Inalienable Rights…”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…”
Qualification
Malum en sea v. Malum prohibitum
*Rape vs. 45 mph
*William Blackstone – English Common Law based upon Natural Law & Judeo-Christian morality
= Law reflects the law-giver
Euthyphro
Moral Objectivism
The Truth in Ethical Relativism
Euthyphro Dilemma
Socrates: And what do you say of piety, Euthyphro? Is not piety, according to your definition, loved by all the gods?
Euthyphro: Certainly.
Socrates: Because it is pious or holy, or for some other reason?
Euthyphro: No, that is the reason.
Socrates: It is loved because it is holy, not holy because it is loved?
The dilemma Euthyphro faced is this: Is a thing
good simply because the gods say it is? Or do
the gods say a thing is good because of some
other quality it has? If so, what is that quality?
The Dilemma
Ethical Volunteerism – A divine command theory of ethics is one in which the ultimate foundation for morality is the revealed will of God, or the commands of God found in Scripture.”1
*Morality is arbitrary
*Leibniz – God COULD have hardwired us to believe that rape, murder, torture ARE moral
*God’s ethics go no further than his power (Nietzschean).
Bertrand Russell, “For God Himself there is no difference between right and wrong.”
*Islamic view
*Not Christian view – Hebrews 6:8 “It is impossible for God to lie.”
2. Absolute Morality outside of God – “The Good” is outside of God and God is subject to it. “God is subject to the moral law.” Thus, the Sovereign becomes subject.
1. Scott Rae, Moral Choices-An Introduction to Ethics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 31.
2. Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian (New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, 1957), 12.
What is a Dilemma?
Must only have 2 possible outcomes
Splitting the horns of a dilemma
Dilemma Splitter?
3. God IS “The Good” – Objective morality exists that is not EXTERNAL to God but INTERNAL.
*Morality is grounded in the immutable character of God, who is perfectly good. His commands are not whims, but rooted in His holiness. It’s not a matter of command. It’s a matter of character.
*God is not the very same thing as goodness (identical to it). It’s an essential characteristic of God, so there is no tautology.
Essential Criteria:
= Q# Are Abstract Objects “Good?”
*Moral values are embodied in persons
*Moral obligation from an AO?
*Virtues are “Person Dependent”
Q# What is your stopping point (for ethics)?
Q# Is your stopping point plausible?
Abstract Object
God
If #1, God would have to align with the AO (sovereign becomes subject)
If #1, then how could “The Good” really be good if it is an AO?
Dilemma Splitter?
Cuts off first horn “Ethical Volunteerism”
Cuts off second horn “The Good” exists as an abstract object.
Why #1 b/c morality is not subjective/relative
Why #2? = 1) Virtues/Good ‘person dependent’
2) Thus, their source (by definition) is personal
3) God is the greatest conceivable being.
4) Therefore, “The Good”must be God’s nature/character
“What Euthyphro Should Have Said”
by William Alston, Oxford University
*Dr. John Lennox of Oxford University
John Lennox video
Thursday, January 21
The Dilemma of Determinism, William James
Determinism
Determinism is the philosophical view that every event in the universe is caused and controlled by natural laws. This would dictate that there is no free will in humans and that all events are merely the result of natural and physical laws.
http://www.carm.org/dictionary-theology/c-d/determinism
Determinism Sources
http://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-elements-of-ethics/section-iv
http://www.rsweb.org.uk/ethics/deter.html
Determinism: Essential Fact
IF Materialism is true then Free Will does not exist in any real sense.
1) If matter is ALL that exists then the spiritual does not exist.
2) FW involves “something” that is not equivalent to, synonymous with, or come from matter.
3) Therefore, Determinism rises or falls based upon whether matter is all that exists.
Determinism: Richard Taylor “Freedom & Determinism”
*Compares humans to sand and other elements (Voices of Wisdom, 460)
Q# Grounds?
“There is no moral blame nor merit in any man who cannot help what he does” (460)
Q# circular reasoning?
“…an ordinary man will hardly understand that anyone can possess merit or vice and be deserving of moral praise or blame, as a result of traits that he has or of behavior arising from those traits, once it is well understood that he could never have avoided being just what he is and doing what he does” (461).
Determinism: Richard Taylor “Freedom & Determinism”
Constraints:
Logical – physical strength
Causal – antecedent conditions
Determinism: Richard Taylor “Freedom & Determinism”
Soft Determinism:
All actions hinge upon antecedent conditions
Voluntary behavior is nonetheless free to the extent that it is not externally constrained or impeded
That, in the absence of such obstacles…the causes of voluntary behavior are certain states, events, or conditions within the agent himself; namely, his own acts of will…volitions, choices, decisions, desires, and so on.
Q# Push the problem back one step?
*Materialism
Different Types of Determinism
Simple/Soft Determinism – Events will occur ONLY IF particular causes of those events occur.
Q# How far back do you go back in the chain of cause & effect?
B. Hard Determinism – Every event has a cause and that this fact is incompatible with free will. Nothing happens without a sufficient reason; hence, free will is an illusion.
Hard Determinism
Advocated by Robert Blatchford (1851-1943)
Heredity and environment determine behavior
Hence, rewards and punishments should be abolished
Did not deny that humans make choices
Denied that “all humans are free to somehow rise above heredity and environment.”
Voices of Wisdom, 472.
IMPORTANT DISTINCTION!!!
Q# Does Proclivity not equal Determinism?
Materialists
Karl Marx – Father of Communism
Richard Dawkins – Father of “New Atheists”
Friedrich Nietzsche – Father of Atheistic Nihilism
Sigmund Freud – Father of modern psychology
Charles Darwin – Father of Darwinism
Determinism differs from:
1. Fatalism – events are determined by some impersonal cosmic force or power
Determinism differs from:
2. Predestination – events are
predetermined by some personal power
*Both Fatalism & Predestination hold that “Determined” actions will happen REGARDLESS…no matter what.
Determinism differs from:
2. Predestination – events are predetermined by some personal power
*Both Fatalism & Predestination hold that “Determined” actions will happen REGARDLESS…no matter what.
Islamic Predestination – Allah’s will
Everything happens by the will of Allah
“Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust.” Surah 9:51
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/shamoun/Predestination%20in%20Islam.html
Islamic Predestination
A. Islamic Predestination – Allah’s will
Everything happens by the will of Allah
“Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust.” Surah 9:51
2) Allah predestines the fate of every soul
“Do you wish to guide him whom Allah has caused to err? And whomsoever Allah causes to err, you shall by no means find a way for him.” Surah 4:88
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/shamoun/Predestination%20in%20Islam.html
Islamic Predestination
3. Allah predestines whether a person will believe
“And if your Lord had pleased, surely all those who are in the earth would have believed, all of them; will you then force men till they become believers? And it is not for a soul to believe except by Allah’s permission; and He casts uncleanness on those who will not understand.”
Surah 10:99-100
Islamic Predestination
A. Islamic Predestination – Allah’s will
1) Everything happens by the will of Allah
2) Allah predestines the fate of every soul
3) Allah predestines whether a person will believe
4) Allah predestines our wills
“This is an admonition: Whosoever will, let him take a (straight) Path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah wills; for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom.” Surah 76:29-30
“Unto whomsoever of you willeth to walk straight. And ye will not, unless (it be) that Allah willeth, the Lord of Creation.” Surah 81:28-29
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/shamoun/Predestination%20in%20Islam.html
Islamic Predestination
A. Islamic Predestination – Allah’s will
1) Everything happens by the will of Allah
2) Allah predestines the fate of every soul
3) Allah predestines whether a person will believe
4) Allah predestines our wills
“This is an admonition: Whosoever will, let him take a (straight) Path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah wills; for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom.” Surah 76:29-30
“Unto whomsoever of you willeth to walk straight. And ye will not, unless (it be) that Allah willeth, the Lord of Creation.” Surah 81:28-29
5) Yet Man is held accountable
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/shamoun/Predestination%20in%20Islam.html
Christian Predestination
*Ocean liner illustration -
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” John 1:10
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
Implications of Determinism
Whether events are determined by a Cosmic Force or God,
How can our actions be free?
If not free, then how can we be held responsible?
Implications of Determinism
No Free Will
No Responsibility
No Virtue
No Vice
No Good
No Evil
No Villains
No Heroes
Implications of Determinism
Human choice is either free, or it is not free
If it is free, then the law of causality is false
If it is not free, then people are not responsible for their actions
Therefore, either the law of causality is false, or people are not responsible for their actions
Virtue – William Wallace
The Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle
Uncertainty Principle:
At the quantum scale, any measurement significantly alters the object being measured
Cannot know position and velocity
Equation:
You can never know both the position and velocity of an object with perfect accuracy
Compare large vs. small objects
Small uncertainty with large object
Large uncertainty with small object
Probabilities
Probabilities
Newtonian View
Determine velocity and position
Quantum View
Cannot determine velocity and position
Use probability
Quantum Weirdness
Richard Feynman- “I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. …Do not keep saying to yourself, ‘But how can it be like that?’… Nobody knows how it can be like that.”
Be Careful!
Quantum mechanics is still a marvelous and necessary tool for understanding the quantum world
“Newtonian notions like position and velocity just aren’t appropriate for the quantum world, which must be described from the beginning in terms of waves and probabilities” (HUM 300, 187).
Quantum Entanglement
Dice
Photons emitted at same time
Despite distance, remain entangled
Quantum teleportation
The Point
= On the Quantum level, measurements must be in probabilities, not specifics
HOWEVER, quantum probability will not disturb macro events.
Quantum Mechanics video
The Great Questions of Existence
Who am I? = A Question of Value
Where did I come from? = A Question of Origins
Why am I here? = A Question of Purpose
How should I live? = A Question of Lifestyle
Where will I go when I die? = A Question of Destiny
*Answer these 5 questions with at least 3 sentences per question
What is Nothing?
No atoms
No nuclei
No leptons
No quarks
Questions of the Uncaused Big Bang Theory
Q# Atomic explosion?
Q# Chemical explosion?
5 Challenges to the Big Bang
Nothingness cannot pack together
A vacuum has no density
There would be no ignition to explode nothingness
There is no way to expand it
Nothingness cannot produce heat
Vance Ferrell, The Evolution Cruncher (Altamont: Evolution Facts Inc., 2001), 71.
Secret History: Sir Fred Hoyle
“The universe has to know in advance what is going to be before it knows how to start itself.
For in accordance with the Big Bang Theory, for instance, at a time of 10 [to the minus 43] seconds the universe has to know how many types of neutrino there are going to be at a time of 1 second. This is so in order that it starts off expanding at the right rate to fit the eventual number of neutrino types. An explosion in a junkyard does not lead to sundry bits of metal being assembled into a working machine.”
Mary Pat Fisher, Living Religions 7th edition (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008), 24- 25.
*VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!! This quotation from Sir Fred Hoyle, the originator of the “Big Bang” Theory cannot be overestimated in terms of importance. Although Hoyle formulated the original “Big Bang” Theory, he later denied his own theory due to evidence to the contrary. Yet this groundbreaking paradigm shift is routinely omitted from many textbooks.
“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.”
– Blaisé Pascal”[1]
[1] Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 50.
January 19
Simon LaPlace and “Does God Play Dice?”