Right Reason

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

The Ontological Argument for the Existence of Ice Cream

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On November 1, 2009

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Anselm and his just dessert

Let us understand the term Super Freeze to refer to the creamiest, most delicious ice cream that can be conceived of (regardless of whether any other ice cream exists or not). The fool says in his heart that Super Freeze does not exist. Yet this very fool, in order to say this, must have Super Freeze in mind when he denies its existence. So even this fool will admit that Super Freeze exists in his understanding, although he does not understand it to exist in reality.

Hence, even the fool is convinced that something exists in the understanding: the creamiest, most delicious ice cream that can be conceived of. But surely the creamiest, most delicious ice cream that can be conceived of cannot exist in the understanding alone. For if it did, we could then go further and conceive of it existing in reality as well, which would make it creamier and more delicious – for real ice cream is surely creamier and more delicious than imaginary ice cream (as any fool can tell you). This is clearly impossible. Hence, there is no doubt that there exists an ice cream than which no creamier or more deliciosu can be conceived, and that it exists both in the understanding and in reality.

So truly do you exist, O Super Freeze my ice cream, that you can not be conceived not to exist.

Thanks a million, Anselm!

[EDIT: OK, this was going to be an inside joke, but for those completely in the dark: This is a parody of Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God. It’s a bad argument. Click the above link to read the original argument. The primary purpose of the parody is to invoke the art of humour.]

Glenn Peoples

Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church – When “Cults” Fill the Void

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On October 30, 2009

In Christianity, religion

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“Bishop” Brian Tamaki

It’s not common to find a well resourced and organised, well presented, enthusiastically socially proactive, theologically conservative (for the most part) and outspoken Christian church in New Zealand. The combination of all four is a rare commodity. So in recent history when Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church showed up, it naturally attracted a lot of attention, both good and bad. It was all of those things – plus a few other things. But in part because of those four things all together, it was like a lighthouse for a number of disenfranchised Christians who felt that other churches really weren’t going to make the kind of difference they wanted to see.

Added to this package, however, were a few other things – things often seen as the darker side of some Pentecostal churches. There had always been an intense focus on the church’s leadership, in this case just one man, Brian Tamaki, who took the title “bishop” in spite of the church not having an episcopal leadership model. All of the church’s publicity, including its own television broadcasts, were centred on one individual. Mr Tamaki was at the centre not because of any qualifications that made him knowledgeable or especially skilled at anything in particular, but rather because of the belief that he is God’s chosen man. A very strong emphasis in Mr Tamaki’s teaching on submission to church leadership (I’ll never forget – “If you don’t have a pastor, you’re heading for disaster”) was also a concern for many, as it raised the spectre of unquestionable authority, or at very least the sustained focus on such submission suggested an unhealthy imbalance towards human authority. It’s also a common feature in charismatic movements like this – and Destiny is no exception – that a great deal of authority to teach the Christian faith is vested in those who at times almost seem to flaunt the fact that they have no theological training. Such, we might be told sometimes, is the stuff of old stuffy religious people in ivory towers, all we really need is a strong leadership above us, a leadership that is in touch with God. In the eyes of many, it’s like a 16 year old boy with no licence being given the fastest car in town. A respect for one’s teaching that has not been earned, but which is taken very seriously by the flock.

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Biblical Marriage?

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On October 26, 2009

In theology and biblical studies

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I have my share of concerns about the way some Christians view marriage and whether or not those views are really biblical, but that’s not what this blog post is about. Vorjack over at “Unreasonable Faith” has challenged the familiar appeal that Christians sometimes make to “biblical marriage” in their rejection of same-sex unions. He claims that this appeal is defective because marriage doesn’t just mean one thing in the Bible, it means eight different things. He writes,

Here’s a summary:
1. Polygynous Marriage
Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.
2. Levirate Marriage
When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).
3. A man, a woman and her property — a female slave
The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).
4. A man, one or more wives, and some concubines
The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually  heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).
5. A male soldier and a female prisoner of war
Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.
6. A male rapist and his victim
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.
7. A male and female slave
A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.

and of course …
8. Monogamous, heterosexual marriage
What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history.

The important thing to realize here is that none of these models are described as better than any other. All appear to have been accepted.
So there you go. The next time someone says that we need to stick with biblical marriage in this country, you can ask them which of the eight kinds they would prefer, and why.

Someone who’s unwilling to be a cheerleader for scepticism but who actually a) knows enough to know whether or not the claims being made align with the facts and b) recognises poor reasoning when they see it, isn’t going to be impressed by this. But the reality is, material like this more often than not appears on websites or blogs where the visitors are likely to be visitors to the site because of their hostility to Christianity, and will be gleefully received as ammunition without much effort being taken to check its reliability. I’m sure similar things happen at some Christian websites too. I should say, too, that it is possible that Vorjack isn’t trying to be dishonest. He is merely reproducing material from another source – albeit with some additions of his own. I doubt that he is deliberately lying. I still say, however, that when you’re in a position to produce material to a large audience and peddle it as fact, you have a responsibility to exercise some care. This certainly wasn’t done in this case.

OK, here we go. This is the short version of what I found objectionable about the claims posted:

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Alvin Plantinga: Christian. Philosopher. Movie Monster.

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On October 25, 2009

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It’s a little known fact that between his stints at Calvin College and the University of Notre Dame, Alvin Plantinga had a brief cameo in a monster movie where he terrorised tourists at the Taj Mahal.

See here for an explanation of what possessed me to do this.

Developments

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On October 24, 2009

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Not too long ago I announced that there were some changes afoot. Although we’re keen supporters of homeschooling, we started sending our children to a nearby very small Christian school and my wife was going to look for work. It had become clear that there just wasn’t time available for me to work on writing, publishing, and generally putting in the work required to work towards the kind of academic role I’m looking for, plus another income wouldn’t go astray.

It will come as no surprise that I’m a firm believer in the providence of God, so it’s only appropriate that I’m now very thankful to God for the way things are turning out. Just a matter of days after deciding to send the children to school Ruth was given a job at a nearby rest home / hospital, working between 19.5 and 30 hours per week, give or take a little. Within a week of this happening, I got a change of hours at work approved, meaning that soon I’ll be working four days per week. The way New Zealand’s welfare and tax system works means that we’re only slightly better off financially than before (but hey, slightly is better than not at all). The other side to that is that we’re earning a much higher proportion of our income, which is much better. Also, although the change of hours at work has been approved, there is a project at work that I need to make myself available for (one that we’ve been planning for a while), so the new hours won’t kick in for a little while yet, but it’s pretty much a done deal. Also, I have exams on the 16th and 17th of November, so initially what extra time I have will be spent preparing for those. But the upshot is that we’re doing a little better now and I will have more time available to work on my own projects, which is what we had hoped for.

I had expected that this process would take a couple of months, but from start to finish it took only a couple of weeks. Think me terribly superstitious if you will, but I’m calling it a sign.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

EDIT: I’ve started putting some of my music clips up at YouTube, and this one is apropros here!

Quodlibeta

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On October 24, 2009

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I don’t usually mention it when I add a new blog to the list of blogs on the right hand side of this page. If I like a blog, I usually just add it, and if you happen to be checking out the blogs that I follow, you’ll discover it.

I didn’t want to risk people not seeing this one. I’ve just added Quodlibeta to the blog list. Here’s how they describe the blog:

The Latin word Quodlibeta means “whatever you like” and refers to the special occasions at medieval universities when the students (or clerks as they were known) could test their masters by asking any question they fancied. This blog is primarily concerned with religion, science, history and their interface. But like the medieval clerks, we reserve the right to post on anything we want.

It’s the blog of James Hannaam, Humphrey Clarke, Jim S (if “S” is indeed his surname) and J.D. Walters. The authors are eminently qualified, the subject matter is thoroughly fascinating, the delivery is first rate, and I’ll be checking in on a regular basis.

On the provocation defence: politicans are not lawyers, and it shows

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On October 19, 2009

In Uncategorized

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A parliamentary committee has recommended that the partial defence of provocation be abolished. I explained in an earlier blog why that’s a bad idea.

However, the responses that the members of parliament have given to the very sensible concerns over the abolition of this partial defence confirm my worst fears about the whole process: They really don’t understand the laws they are trying to have changed. It’s the anti-smacking law all over again. You can Get More Info on how those proceedings take place.

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Google knows my name!

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On October 18, 2009

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I liked Google already, but now I have another reason to like their search engine. It has evolved to the point where you start typing what you’re about to search for in the search box, and it starts making suggestions based on common searches people make and based on the content of the sites Google indexes (actually I’m not 100% sure what it’s based on, but those two ideas make sense to me).

I just entered my name into the Google search engine (and don’t act like you’ve never done it), without using speech makrs to narrow the search down, and before I even searched for anything, this is what Google suggested (the text in the top box is what I just typed, the rest is the three suggestions that Google made):

I understand the glenn peoples billboard suggestion, because there’s a Glenn Peoples at coolfer music, who have a popular blog. But the other two? One guess why they’re there. 🙂

Disagree with a Muslim in public? Then you're a criminal.

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On October 18, 2009

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A Christian couple got into a discussion with a Muslim woman about the status of Jesus and the life of Muhammed. Because the Muslim woman was offended, the couple now face criminal charges.

OK, now without cheating and watching the news story first, guess what country this happened in. Saudi Arabia? Iran? Pakistan? No, no, and no. Now watch the clip.

The Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit and Christian Confidence

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On October 17, 2009

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Christian apologists (and Christians in general) have noted from time to time that there is an important difference between being able to know that God is real and being able to show that God is real. You can do the former without doing the latter.

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