Right Reason

The blog of Dr Glenn Andrew Peoples on Theology, Philosophy, and Social Issues

Stay tuned – I’m not dead yet!

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I have ADHD, but I’m not one of those people who likes to bang on about being “neurodiverse” and use it as an explanation of (or excuse for!) things I don’t do well. I haven’t even mentioned that diagnosis here previously, and I’m unlikely to mention it much in future. I have really struggled over the last ten years (Yes, ten years!) to focus on any serious output in writing and recording material, both here and elsewhere, and it has been a source of frustration for me. I have wanted to produce content, but have not done so. I want to change that, and I have plans for a bunch of articles here (and videos over at the YouTube channel) in the near future (by which I mean the next year, but especially the next six months). This study trimester is nearly over, and there’s a blank trimester before my next course (for those who don’t know, I am re-training part-time in psychology). I’ll be working, so not completely free (not even mostly free!), but I’ll have some time. Subjects that are currently in the works:

  • Is divine command ethics relativism? (No of course not, what a ridiculous thing to say. None of the serious proponents or critics of the view have ever said that, nor has the literature on meta-ethics. But some people have said it, so here we are.)
  • Some comments on William Lane Craig’s use of a divine command theory of ethics to defend the Israelite conquest of Canaan in conversation with Alex O’Connor. This one is a video.
  • Athanasius on hell, revisited (Where I explain my change of mind about what St Athanasius thought about hell, I complain that “traditionalists” about hell did not the case for Athanasius view better, and I briefly note that this change of mind also involves some evidence that Athanasius was not, contrary to the claims of some, a Universalist.
  • Another video, this time on the Canon of the Bible. I respond to false, historically indefensible, and grossly uncharitable claims of anti-Protestant apologists that the Reformers intentionally “removed” books from the Bible because they disagreed with them. I’ve done so here at the blog before, but I thought the video format might be useful to a different audience.
  • A written response to philosopher Tim Hsiao, who argued, unsuccessfully I think, that the moral statuses of contraception and homosexuality stand or fall together.
  • Another post in that series on biblical passages that have created the controversy called “women in ministry” and related issues. This post is almost finished.

Stay tuned. I’d like to call it a comeback, but we’ll see how I’m able to manage!

Glenn

That Olympics opening ceremony, and how not to engage culture

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After some of the dust has settled following the controversial item in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, I wanted to offer a few thoughts about it, and about the way Christians engage secular culture.

I don’t think it was intended as a parody or mockery of Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper. But there are issues here that go further than that.

What is Lent All About?

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Do you know what Lent is, and why some Christians observe it? I sat down with our parish priest, Hennie Nothnagel, to get his perspective.

 

 

Advice to Christian debaters and speakers

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I know, nobody has to take my advice. But I think there needs to be more of a discernment process that people (usually guys) go through before deciding that they are going to be a public face of Christian apologetics or theology. Here’s some free advice, which might be worth every cent you paid for it!

“Gay Conversion Therapy” and other things, with David Riddell

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I recently sat down with David Riddell, a Christian counsellor caused a stir a little while ago amid accusations that he practices so-called “gay conversion therapy.”

Ricky Gervais on Religion vs Fact

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A while ago Ricky Gervais spoke with Stephen Colbert about religion. No surprises, Ricky is an atheist and thinks religions are all wrong, along with the natural human tendency to believe in God. But he made a specific line of argument, distinguishing fact from fiction by saying that if you destroyed all holy books (or any other fictional accounts), their content would be lost forever. Facts, however, would be back years later even if you destroyed all the books, because scientific tests would establish them once more.

Is this the right way to think about the distinction? I think not. Whatever proves too much ends up proving nothing at all. This criteria would consign so much fact to Ricky’s waste bin of fiction, including moral truths as well as most facts about history.

Pentecost and the “Promise of the Father”

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The day of Pentecost has just passed. Do you know what it is? Other than the “birthday of the church” or the time when the disciples of Jesus spoke in other languages, what is the significance of the day of Pentecost?

Do you have eight minutes to spare and find out?

Divine Holiness and Hell

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Earlier this month I spoke at the annual conference of the Conditional Immortality Association of New Zealand, on divine holiness and hell. Defenders of the doctrine of eternal torment sometimes assure us that eternal torment in hell is necessary because God is very, very holy. But a biblical theology of God’s holiness actually offers no support at all to this view on hell. In fact, God’s holiness as depicted in the Bible offers more support for the doctrine of annihilationism – the view that God will finally remove all evil and those who commit it from creation. If you have 25 minutes to spare, take a listen!

God vs Government: Churches and vaccine mandates, the court case

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Right Reason now has a Youtube channel. The first video is up, and it features an interview with my good friend Madeleine Flannagan. Madeleine was one of the lawyers who brought the case against the New Zealand Government over vaccine mandates.

Using an academic job as a platform for activism: Auckland University’s Sociology department and the attack on academic freedom

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When is an academic job a platform for you to carry out activism on behalf of your views on gender, punishing students who don’t share your personal opinion? When you’re a lecturer at the Auckland University, it turns out.

Recently, a photo showing essay question options in the sociology department at the University of Auckland has been doing the rounds on social media, and for obvious reasons. The question reads: “What is transgender theory? Why does transgender theory matter? (Essays that take a ‘gender critical’ position on transgender or question the validity of trans identities will be failed)”

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