The first six articles in this issue of THINK have the theme “Good without God”. Here, Richard Swinburne argues that the existence of God is not a precondition of there being moral truths, but his existence does impact on what moral truths there are.

Simon Blackburn responds to the preceding article by Richard Swinburne.

Richard Swinburne responds to Simon Blackburn.

Is something good because God wills it, or does God will it because it is good? This lies at the heart of our debate on “Good without God”. Here Tim Mawson explains how he thinks the theist can solve it.

In the fifth of our articles on “Good without God”, Richard Norman explains why he believes we can be good without God.

It began with a lie. Perhaps not a big lie, at least I didn't think so at the time, but a lie nevertheless. My Vicar had taken me for an interview with our Bishop following my application, supported by him, to undergo ordination training. My Vicar had prepared me well except that he never warned me that I would be asked if I was sure that I had a vocation. I had to hazard a guess at what this question meant. I wanted to be a clergyman like the Vicar and I sensed that if I answered: “No”, to the bishop's question, I probably wouldn't be proceeding much further. So I said “Yes”, not really knowing what I was committing myself to. Later I worked out that the question was meant to reassure the bishop that I had had a word from God. At the end, many, many years later, when I admitted to myself that there really wasn't a god, it was the same question that rose up to meet me. By then I had to admit that I had never, ever had a word from God.

In our seventh and final piece on the theme “Good without God”, Jonathan Ives argues that reliance on God as an external source of moral authority leads to a kind of moral cowardice.

The first of three articles discussing the Israel/Palestine conflict and the charge of anti-semitism. The second article is a response by Tamar Meisels, and the third a reply to Meisels by Klug.

Tamar Meisels responds to the preceding article.

Our third and final article on the the Israel/Palestine conflict and anti-semitism.

If a statue and lump of clay have the same life-histories, are they numerically identical?

Terence Moore explains why Locke is perhaps not quite the “empiricist” many suppose him to be.

Thinking tools is a regular feature that offers tips and pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously.

Philip Cam argues that we need to rise above Smith's fixation on self-interest in economic affairs.