A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Ethics

  • Teleology beyond biologism

    One addendum to the previous post. I noted that old-style “biological” teleology had largely fallen out of favor as a foundation for ethics. However, this doesn’t mean that Christian ethics can or should dispense with teleology altogether. I grazed this point when I said that “ultimate happiness consists in greater knowledge of and union with Read more

  • Creaturely goods and theistic ethics

    In comments to this post, Gaius asked some incisive questions about how a theist who accepts the general evolutionary picture of the world can avoid falling back on some form of divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism). The problem arises because, post-Darwin, it’s difficult to attribute inherent purposive-ness to natural processes. But the Read more

  • The cosmic prodigal son

    I’ve been reading a book called Created from Animals: the Moral Implications of Darwinism by the late philosopher James Rachels. The thesis is that Darwinism does have far-reaching implications for morality, even if not the ones commonly thought. This is in contrast to those, like Stephen Jay Gould, who tried to erect an insuperable wall Read more

  • Hebblethwaite on natural and revealed morality

    In his book Christian Ethics in the Modern Age, British philosopher-theologian Brian Hebblethwaite offers a nice summary of what I tend to think of as the classic Christian understanding of the nature of ethics: Christians certainly believe that all goodness stems from God and reflects both God’s own nature and His will for man. But Read more

  • Justice among the beasts

    Interesting review of a new book portraying behavior of animals that can fairly be described as moral (via). I think our resistance to seeing animals as in any way “moral” might be rooted in the Kantian legacy of modern moral philosophy. Roughly, for Kant, you’re only acting morally when you’re acting for the sake of Read more

  • Notes on human uniqueness and the Imago Dei

    In light of this post, here are some thoughts on what it might mean to affirm human uniqueness and to say that we’re created in the image of God: The Bible doesn’t give us much to go in when it says that human beings are created in God’s image: Then God said, “Let us make Read more

  • The quest for the happy meal

    Here’s a look at the lengths people are going to to get humanely-raised meat. Mostly I want to applaud this, but at the same time I continue to have this nagging feeling that there’s something incongruous about going to such lengths to treat animals well in order to kill and eat them. Read more

  • A vegan critique of Pollan

    Erik Marcus, vegan and animal rights activist, has a review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma that is appreciative, but critical in key places. Key quote: Pollan’s book convincingly shows that animal agriculture can, in fact, operate in a way that respects the environment. For a reader who’s acquainted with the staggering wastefulness of animal agriculture, it’s Read more

  • Pollan on the ethics of meat eating

    In general I find Michael Pollan’s indictment of our current industrial food system, which floats on a sea of subsidized corn, fossil fuels, and chemical fertilizers, entirely persuasive. And his account of a week spent at self-described “libertarian Christian environmentalist” Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm, where the natural ecosystem of a functioning farm is respected and Read more

  • Natural law, homosexuality and the ELCA

    Carl Braaten has published a spirited defense of natural law ethics at the Journal of Lutheran Ethics with which I’m in substantial agreement. I think that if natural law ethics didn’t exist we’d have to invent it, and that people who claim to be deriving their ethics solely from uniquely Christian principles have usually smuggled Read more