James White on Richard Dawkins

I haven’t read any of Richard Dawkins books’ in their entirety, but I have read and heard enough snippets of him, Hitchens, Harris, et. al. to recognize an intentional (and rather shallow) meanness in their presentations. I don’t think this will ultimately serve their cause well.

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P.S. I’ve been listening to James White and Steve Gregg debate Calvinism the last few days. It has been a very interesting conversation. If you’re interested, you can get all five mp3s here.

Moral Relativism & Female Genital Mutilation

I recently read this post at Tim Challies blog about Female Genital Mutilation. I won’t regurgitate the horrid details of the practice here. While reading the post, I remembered a sociology professor I took a few courses from at a local community college. He was a nice enough guy, and I often challenged him during class. (Yes, I was that annoying guy who always had his hand up in the air.) He always referred to morality as a social construct, varying from one society to the next.

He refused to acknowledge any absolute truths. In a way, I respected his stubborn adherence to his moral relativism. I distinctly remember asking him one day about Female Genital Mutilation. And I will never forget his refusal to say that mutilating a young girl’s genitalia is wrong.

Of course, he personally thought it was a bad idea, but he could not say that it was wrong or immoral in any absolute sense. I believe this inability to absolutely condemn obvious evil evidences the moral incoherence of a godless worldview. Without God, man cannot rationally approve or disapprove any behavior as moral or immoral, because he has no ultimate standard to which he can appeal. All moral calculations will be based on some kind of utilitarian calculus (e.g. “that which causes human suffering is wrong/evil”) that is open to varying interpretations and applications depending on varying circumstances and prejudices.

I don’t want to live in a world ruled by that kind of moral calculus.

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For a interesting argument against the possibility of atheistic morality, check out the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God.

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