"Paul Copan is a Christian theologian, analytic philosopher, apologist, and author. He is currently a professor at the Palm Beach Atlantic University and holds the endowed Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics. He has written and edited over 25 books in the area of philosophy of religion, apologetics, theology, science & religion, and the historicity of Jesus Christ. He has contributed many articles to professional journals and has written many essays for edited books. For six years he served as the president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society."
"...the Mosaic law was temporary and, as a whole, isn’t universal and binding upon all humans or all cultures. Second, Mosaic times were indeed “crude” and “uncultured” in many ways. So Sinai legislation makes a number of moral improvements without completely overhauling ancient Near Eastern social structures and assumptions.” (Copan)
“Old Testament ethics is one hot topic, and it creates all kinds of reactions— from bewilderment and confusion to anger and outpourings of hostility. I’ve sensed the need for an accessible, less-lengthy book on this topic. Though I’ve done scattered writing on Old Testament ethics in various books and articles, I wanted not only to expand on these themes but also to add a good deal of new material. In this case, I’m killing two birds with one stone—not only tackling a tough subject but also using the New Atheism movement as a springboard for discussion.” (Copan)
"In the ancient Near East, however, warfare was a way of life and a means of survival. Fighting was a much less grim reality back then. In the ancient Near East, combatants and noncombatants weren’t always easily distinguished. We’ve also observed that the hardness of the human hearts (Matt. 19:8), in conjunction with the existence of fallen, morally blunted social structures in the ancient Near East likely means that such actions would have been considerably less psychologically damaging for the ancient Israelites than for a citizen of Wester culture. There is no evidence that Israelite soldiers were internally damaged by killing Canaanites." (Copan)
“We live in a time when we are very alert to racial discrimination and intolerance, but we aren’t as sensitized to sexual sin as past generations were. We live in a time that sees death as the ultimate evil. Perhaps we need to be more attuned to the fact that our moral intuitions are not as fine tuned as they ought to be.” (Copan)
Articles
http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201004/201004_138_Canannites.cfm
http://www.paulcopan.com/articles/pdf/Copan-Just_War_in_an_Age_of_Terror.pdf
http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201203/201203_034_Good_God.cfm
http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201102/201102_108_slavery.htm.cfm
http://www.paulcopan.com/articles/pdf/God-is-great.pdf
