Episode 107 - Morality in Motion

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Books Referenced

Quotations and People Referenced

All page numbers are from Science and the Good

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)

They hoped that by insisting on observable evidence to support moral claims, they would offer a way to temper some of the most violent conflagrations of human unsociability” Page 39

So he was still a moral realist and thought we just we arrived at morality by studying “what is in accord with the kind of society of rational beings that we all want.” Page 40, and even even introduced the concept of rights.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

“As he put it, ‘for these words of Good, Evil, and Contemptible, are ever used in relationship to the person that uses them: there being nothing simply an absolutely so; not any common rule of Good and Evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves.’  Instead, the moral law is whatever human beings make it to be through consent and convention.” Page 42.

Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794)

“In the same manner, by analyzing the faculty of experiencing pain and pleasure, men arrived at the origin of their notions of morality, and the foundation of those general principles which form the necessary and immutable laws of justice; and consequently discovered the proper motives of conforming their conduct to those laws, which, being deduced from the nature of our feeling, may not improperly be called our moral constitution.” Page 45

David Hume (1711-1776)

Hume’s empiricism, by contrast, led him to conclude that moral evaluation simply expressed a person‘s feelings and attitudes with respect to a person or situation. Such sentiments were the sum and substance of  moral life, and they could never be connected to any objective, mind independent moral order.” Page 52

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

“The creed which accepts as the foundations of morals “utility“ or the “greatest happiness principle“ holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.” Page 61

Nietzsche, The Madman, 1882

Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? 

Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov (1879,80)

Ivan Karamazov claims that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.  If there is no God, then there are no rules to live by, no moral law we must follow; we can do whatever we want.

Reid S. Monaghan

Reid Monaghan received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Computer Science with a minor in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC he also competed on the wrestling team for the then perennial ACC Champion and top ten Tarheels. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Apologetics, a multidisciplinary degree involving Philosophy, Biblical studies, and Theology.

After college, he spent eight years serving alongside his wife Kasey on the college campus with the ministry of Athletes in Action. He pioneered the Athletes in Action campus ministry at Virginia Tech and was the director there from 1998-2004. During his final two years on AIA staff Reid also served as regional director for the Mid-Atlantic and Ivy League schools. From 2004-2008 Reid was on the staff of Fellowship Nashville where he started a work with young adults called Inversion, preached in the Sunday rotation and taught classes in theology and Christian Apologetics.

Along with a team of friends, Reid planted Jacob’s Well, a theologically driven and culturally engaged church in Central New Jersey. He also pioneered the Acts 29 Network in the state of New Jersey, served on the Northeast lead team, and as director for church planter assessment for the US South Central Network. Reid continues to consult and coach church planters as part of his ministry.

He is a traveling speaker where he addresses students and athletes on various campuses throughout the United States. He has spoken to college students at such institutions as Brown, Princeton, Yale, Wake Forest, Rutgers, UNC Chapel Hill, and Virginia Tech. In addition to his campus work he has spoken in chapel services for the Tennessee Titans, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the New York Football Giants.

He has long been engaged with the task of bringing the gospel to people in culture in clear, relevant and compelling ways combining theological vision, apologetics, Christian thought and popular culture.

Some of his greatest joys in life are from the gifts God has given him in his wife Kasey (married 1996), and his kiddos Kayla (arrival 2001), Kylene (arrival 2003), and Thomas Reid (arrival 2006).

Reid has a limited number of dates each year to speak in various venues. His areas of strength are with Christian apologetics, athletes, biblical preaching, family life and worship, college students, and ethnically diverse audiences. Please contact us via our Speaker Request Form if you would like Reid to come and serve with your church or campus ministry.