Sunday, March 4, 2007

Further Info on Moral Authority

So I did some digging and found some more essays on my moral authority dilemma. The first website I found was by Mark Vuletic. His discussion was interesting, but not very compelling in the end. His refutations were weak at best, and his arguments took too many unfounded leaps in judgement. A response to his paper was written by Tom Wanchick, and I think Tom did an excellent job of addressing the issues raised by Mark. Although neither article settles my question, Tom does express some of my sentiments in a much more elegant manor. The "heat emanating from fire" analogy comes close to my intuition that God's moral character just is, and He projects it to us. But anyways, just thought I'd give you further reading if you want. Do read both if you can, otherwise read just the second because it talks about both arguments. You may think the website itself (infidels.org) is an interesting choice on my part, and I'll have you know I didn't expect to find what I did. If you do get a chance to read them, let me know what you think!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lindsay,
do not feel betrayed by this question; many have pondered its weight.
kant ends 'practical reason' with a thoughtful quote: "Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me." any careful readings of kant will show this conflict rearing its head again and again.
in addition, st. augustine confronts this question in his 'confessions' and 'city of god', st. thomas aquintas has a collection of 'political writings' which you might find interesting. and there is a poli sci prof at uw-madison, prof. riley (an underappreciated treasure who is about to retire), who has a wonderful and learned account of justice in his book 'justice as love and benevolence', that tracks this concept from plato through scripture and shakespeare.