When Massey Goes a-Simplifyin': A Response to Chris Massey on Divine Genocide

               Somewhat related to the moral argument is the issue of what’s come to be called the “slaughter of the Canaanites.” This is the issue of certain commands presumed to have been given by God to the Israelites as they were beginning their conquest of the land of Canaan. According to Old Testament accounts, God commanded the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child in the land, and even to kill the cattle; to leave nothing alive. It is a topic for another day whether the command was specifically to kill all those who were living in the land, or whether the command was to dispossess the inhabitants of the land and to kill any who did not flee. For the sake of today’s post, we can assume that God did command Israel to kill everything alive in Canaan, including women and children, and to have no mercy.

James Croft on Fine-Tuning

On Saturday, October 06, 2012, an exchange between David Glass and James Croft aired on the radio program “Unbelievable.”  Glass is a lecturer in North Ireland, and Croft is affiliated with the Harvard Humanist Association of Harvard University. They were discussing Glass’ new book Atheism’s New Clothes, which is a critique of the so-called new atheism. Croft took issue with some of Glass’ analysis, and I’ve subsequently taken issue with some of Crofts. It rolls down hill, as they say. A great deal of their discussion pertained to the argument from fine-tuning for the existence of an intelligent agent behind the universe. I’ve not yet discussed this argument, although it is a popular one among many theists, because I’m not familiar enough with it to give it a serviceable defense, and I frankly have some nagging doubts about its soundness. At any rate, Croft’s nagging doubts about its soundness are, in my estimation, off-base, and here is why.