McCain, of course, will argue that there is no way to make morality absolute without god. Well, in the first place, he is assuming that it is necessary or even desirable for morality to be absolute. His own inspired word of God indicates a recognition that morality rather than being absolute depends upon the situation. When Jesus and his apostles were criticized for working (plucking grain) on the sabbath, he cited the case of David who "entered the house of God... and ate the showbread," which only priests were permitted to eat. His conclusion was that "the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:26-27). That sounds like situational morality to me.
Secondly, McCain assumes that having his God, he can know what absolute or objective morality is, but we have demonstrated time and time again on this list that this is not so. McCain, of course, believes that the Bible is the source of objective morality, because it is the revealed word of God. That God has revealed his standard of objective morality in the Bible is something he can prove by resolving for us the following moral dilemmas that people in modern society are already having to confront and will have to confront more and more as technology develops. When he answers these questions, I want him to cite the book, chapter, and verse in the Bible that gave him his answers.
1. Are blood transfusions morally right?
2. Are organ transplants morally right?
3. Are trans-species organ transplants (baboon to human) morally right?
4. Is gene splicing morally right?
5. Are trans-species gene splices (bovine to human) morally right?
6. Is it morally right for a woman to be artificially inseminated with semen from a male who is not her husband?
7. Is in vitro fertilization morally right?
8. Is surrogate motherhood morally right?
9. Is it morally right for zygotes obtained through in vitro fertilization to be implanted into the wombs of women who did not themselves contribute the ova that were fertilized in vitro?
10. Is it morally right for zygotes obtained through in vitro fertilization to be frozen in liquid nitrogen for implantation at some future date?
11. If yes, how long may such zygotes be keep suspended in their frozen state before it becomes immoral, or is there just no limit to how long they may be kept frozen?
12. Would it ever be morally right to thaw these zygotes and allow them to die as is presently being done in England in a highly publicized case?
13. Fertility specialists have shown that they can divide a zygote (obtained through in vitro fertilization) into two or more "pieces," all of which have the potential to develop into identical embryos and eventually identical babies. Would it be morally right for fertility specialists to produce identical twins, triplets, quads, quints, etc. through this process?
14. Is it morally right for surgeons to separate Siamese twins when it is known in advance that the surgery will kill one of the twins?
TILL If McCain cannot answer these questions, as Luke Reimer admitted that he couldn't, then would he please explain to us why theists feel entitled to criticize atheists for not having the answers to all moral questions?
Farrell Till Skepticism, Inc. jftill@midwest.net