As I’ve been blogging on the new atheists and Old Testament ethics of late, I thought you might be interested in my interview with the journal Philosophia Christi on my forthcoming article, “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster? The New Atheists and Old Testament Ethics.” The article itself should be out next month, but this will give you further idea of what it includes.

http://www.epsociety.org/blog

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In his book The God Delusion, the new atheist Richard Dawkins asserts that Yahweh is truly a moral monster: “What makes my jaw drop is that people today should base their lives on such an appalling role model as Yahweh—and even worse, that they should bossily try to force the same evil monster (whether fact or fiction) on the rest of us.”

In this particular blog, I would like to address a glaring inconsistency, which I mentioned in passing in an earlier blog. How can Dawkins launch any moral accusation at all? This is utterly inconsistent with his total denial of evil and goodness elsewhere: Continue Reading »

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In my last blog, I discussed the fact that the Mosaic Law should not be understood as a lofty moral ideal for all cultures and all times. Rather, as Jesus points out in Matthew 19:8, many things were permitted (whether divorce, slavery, polygamy, war, patriarchal social structures), but these were far removed from the creational ideals presented in Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:24. No, the Mosaic Law wasn’t the ideal, but it certainly was a noteworthy improvement upon the miserable moral and religious conditions in the ancient Near East (ANE). In this blog, I want to note some of them. As we’ll see, Israel would have been a great moral and social refuge in contrast to the surrounding nations.

From the late fourth millennium BC until the first centuries AD, collections of cuneiform law were in existence in the ANE. Cuneiform was a script of wedges impressed upon tablets of clay or wax or inscribed in stone or metal. Various collections of cuneiform law exist. These include the laws of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BC, during the Third Dynasty of Ur); the laws of Lipit-Ishtar (c. 1925 BC), who ruled the Sumerian city of Isin; the (Akkadian) laws of Eshnunna (c. 1800 BC), a city 100 miles north of Babylon; the laws of Hammurabi (1750 BC); and the Hittite laws (1650-1200 BC) of Asia Minor. Continue Reading »

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New atheist Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation makes the claim that the Law of Moses purports to be an expression of “God’s timeless wisdom.” While a fringe minority (Christian Reconstructionists) believe that the Old Testament (OT) laws for national Israel are ideal and normative for all nations, the Scriptures themselves take another view on the matter. For one thing, the OT anticipates a “new covenant,” which is fulfilled in Christ. Thus Hebrews talks about something “greater” and “better.” This covenant is not nationalistically-oriented but encompasses the new Israel—the inter-ethnic church as the people of God. Continue Reading »

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I guess Richard Dawkins didn’t read my book. . . .

Well, not that it would have mattered: Dawkins seems determined never to give religion the benefit of the doubt. In his God Delusion, he considers Yahweh an “evil monster” whose command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is “disgraceful” and tantamount to “child abuse and bullying.” Have Jews and Christians missed something all these millennia? Dawkins’s own hostility toward religion greatly diminishes his charitability quotient.

Not only can we detect hostility in Dawkins, but hypocrisy as well. In his book River out of Eden, he denies that evil exists at all:

If the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, meaningless tragedies . . . are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless good fortune. Such a universe would be neither evil nor good in intention . . . . The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference. So we have “no evil and no good” there and Yahweh as an “evil monster” here.

So which is it? If, presumably, Dawkins hasn’t drastically changed his metaphysical outlook, what exactly is his case against an allegedly evil deity? Continue Reading »

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The news has been out since 2004 that the world’s leading atheist, Antony Flew, changed his mind in light of the available evidence. Like waking up from a bad dream, a number of atheists and skeptics reacted in, well, . . . disbelief. Their stance shifted to skepticism and then, as this late-in-life conversion became undeniable, it shifted to outright denunciations of Flew. In his God Delusion book, Richard Dawkins refers scornfully to the “over-publicized tergiversation [apostasy]” of Flew in his “old age,” having been “converted to belief in some sort of deity.” He contrasts Flew with the “great philosopher” Bertrand Russell, who “won the Nobel Prize.”

Flew was of course, the atheist philosopher for decades, and his accomplishments, insight, and creativity can’t be minimized by such cheap shots from within his former “community.” His recently-released book, There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (Harper One, 2007) tells a remarkable story of Flew’s pilgrimage. He had been the son of a Methodist minister, but as a teenager he “rejected the thesis that the universe was created by an all-good, all powerful God.” The book recounts an astonishing career of achievements and acquaintances, including his participation in Oxford University’s Socratic Club during C.S. Lewis’s tenure as president (1942-1954). The club’s stated goal was to heed Socrates’ exhortation to “follow the argument wherever it leads.” This is the maxim Flew has sought to follow all his life. But for many of his critics, “free-thinking” is a one-way street: thinking is “free” if you move away from God, not toward God. Continue Reading »

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Having grown up in the north, I have a great appreciation for this time of year—the harvest season. While living in Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, my family and I greatly enjoyed the crisp evening air, the spectacular fall colors, going on hayrides, drinking fresh apple cider, and picking pumpkins, gourds, and apples. My wife (who’s from the Boston area) and I miss this time of year especially.

Despite the fact that I’m now living in Florida, I’ve experienced a different kind of harvest—of published books. So, I thought I’d diverge from my typical blog discussions to fill you on the fruits of my labor. (What I mention below you can see at a glance by checking my website: www.paulcopan.com.) Continue Reading »

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I’ve been reading J.P. Moreland’s superb book Kingdom Triangle, which was recently released by Zondervan. He begins with this true story by the missionary doctor to Zaire, Africa—Helen Roseveare. Though it’s a bit long for a blog, it is very inspiring.

One night, in Central Africa, I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all that we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying, two-year-old daughter.

     

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

     Continue Reading »

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A man was walking along San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge when he saw a woman about to jump off. He ran up to her, trying to dissuade her from committing suicide. He told her simply that God loved her. A tear came to her eye.
He then asked her, “Are you a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, or what?” Continue Reading »

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Last week in a Sunday school class I was teaching, someone asked about being delivered from depression. I noted that God is surely able to do so. But I tried to give another perspective on this—that pain may actually be a means of blessing. As C.S. Lewis observed, pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a dulled world.

In our culture, we have a tendency to be preoccupied with the alleviation of pain. But there is a danger: we can become so absorbed with “recovery” from pain that we make this a higher priority than knowing Christ or being delivered from sin.

Do we find ourselves more upset with our discomfort than with our lack of Christ-likeness and sin? Our main problem is not pain; alienation from God and idolatry and sin are. Once we realize that God is not obligated to take our pain away (as Paul experienced with his “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12), our relationship with God can be enriched and deepened. Continue Reading »

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Taken from “Is It Okay To Lie to Nazis?” in a forthcoming book with Baker Books

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, criticizes biblical ethics for its alleged preoccupation with “absolutes”—and not allowing for any ethical tensions or exceptions. I’ve met people who have concluded that since ethical tensions exist (telling the truth to Nazis vs. protecting innocent Jewish lives), this means moral standards don’t really exist.

Such perceptions aren’t accurate, however. In fact, the very tension that exists between truth-telling and preserving innocent life assumes that we take seriously two or more important moral obligations. Furthermore, these tensions may not be of equal value and may call for properly ordering/prioritizing them according to God’s kingdom purposes. Biblical ethics is more subtle and nuanced than many imagine. Yes, certain acts are always wrong (rape, adultery, torturing babies for fun), but we also should consider the context of actions (while murder is always killing, not all killing is murder), the character doing the act, and the motive behind the act. Continue Reading »

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To Friedrich Nietzsche’s mind, God isn’t a very clear communicator: How could an all-knowing and all-powerful God be good if he doesn’t make clear his intentions to his creatures but leaves them tormented by doubts and questions? Another atheist, N.R. Hanson, has claimed he could be convinced to believe in God if suddenly the world’s inhabitants were knocked to their knees by a “shattering thunderclap,” followed by swirling snow, blowing leaves, heaving earth, toppling buildings, and a Zeus-like figure declaring convincingly with a thundering voice, “I most certainly do exist.” Then there’s Bertrand Russell’s complaint of God, “You didn’t give us enough evidence Continue Reading »

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Martin Luther talked of a “theology of the cross” (theologia cruces), The God who suffers with and for human beings reveals himself in humility—most clearly in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Luther disapproved of “theologians of glory” who confidently presented abstract “proofs.”  Why?  Such theologians may be in danger of obscuring both the cross, which casts “God’s shadow,” and of diminishing the fact that God veils himself for particular reasons.  It is true that salvation comes through our self-abandonment and humbling ourselves in response to God’s grace.  Even if we may disagree with Luther to some extent, we shouldn’t forget that human reasoning—even constructing arguments for God’s nature and existence— without the aid of the cross and the Spirit of God will miss the mark. Luther is right to point us in a cruciform or crucicentric direction; indeed, the world-defying wisdom of God is found in the cross (1 Cor. 1:18). Continue Reading »

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I’ve never blogged before, and I’m amazed at how some bloggers keep up with all the comments and inquiries they get day after day. So I guess it’s probably a good idea to post something just once a month! I’m grateful to the folks at Reclaiming the Mind Ministries for asking me to participate. They told me to mention something about myself and some of the books I’ve written and edited. So here’s my intro.

Continue Reading »