Should the government try to undermine conspiracy theories involving the government ? In 2009 an article by Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule appeared in the Journal of Political Philosophy (Volume 17, 2, pp. 202-227). Among other things, the authors argued that governments should engage in . . . . Continue Reading »
Religious conservatives and social conservatives in the Republican Party are like the driver’s education instructor, said political scientist Dennis Goldford back in 2007. He has a brake, but he doesn’t have a steering wheel or an accelerator. Slamming on the . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s a fascinating element in the discussion of the Sabbath year in Deuteronomy 15. The general law requires releasing people from their debts every seven years. That means if you lend to someone a few months before the release of debts, and the person is too poor to pay it back in . . . . Continue Reading »
I posted this a week ago to my personal blog and intended to cross-post it here without too much delay, but I’ve just realized that I never got around to it.There’s a particularly bad argument against those who accept the biblical prohibitions against same-sex sexual acts, and I think I’ve . . . . Continue Reading »
Marvelous: The .Doc file of J. Alfred Prufrock . It begins: Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a laptop, put in sleep mode on a table Let us go through certain half-deserted streets The blinking-light retreats Of restless nights in free-wifi cafes . . . . Continue Reading »
“The search for consensus can result in a flattened document — or, as one bishop put it, documents that have found their least common denominator,” noted Bishop Robert Vasa, speaking on “The Bishop and the Conference” at the InsideCatholic Partnership Award Dinner. It . . . . Continue Reading »
Yuval Levin, a researcher of the fractured relationship between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, recently wrote an interesting post about Burkes significant appeal for conservatives as a founding father (and it should be noted that leftists wont stop admiring him either). This raises the . . . . Continue Reading »
Something that may interest those interested in the kind of restrictive separationism described in Secularist Secularism : the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability’s policy statement Protecting the Religious Employment Practices of Churches and Religious Organizations . . . . . Continue Reading »
The problem of suffering and what do to about it has occupied philosophers and religious thinkers since humans first created civilization. This concern has led to to the creation of great religions, such as Buddhism, and impelled some of us to astonishing acts of empathy and charity. . . . . Continue Reading »
Roger Scruton examines Cardinal John Henry Newman’s conception of what a university does : For Newman a university does not exist simply to convey information or expertise. The university is a society in which the student absorbs the graces and accomplishments of a higher form of life. In the . . . . Continue Reading »