Pseudo-Science

Last updated on: June 8, 2008 at 5:28 pm By Morning's Minion

We all believe that there is no conflict whatsoever between faith and reason and that truth cannot contradict truth. And yet people– especially in America, for some reason– will often place ideology above reason. We see it with fundamentalists and evolution, a widespread position (including some fringe Catholics like Bill Donohue). We see it most notably with global warming, when we see Catholics routinely downplay the issues, appealing to pop novelists, science fiction writers, and what they deemed learned rebuttals. Of... Read more

Just the Facts

Last updated on: June 8, 2008 at 2:57 am By Edward Blackadder

Previous in Series: Against Colorblindness Our attempts to define racism in terms of equal dignity or in terms of colorblindness floundered because it turned out that the racist, by making certain factual assumptions, could comply formally with the principles while keeping his racist beliefs. An obvious solution to this difficulty would be to define a racist not as someone who violates a particular moral principle, but rather as someone who holds certain racist beliefs (e.g. whites are more intelligent than... Read more

Stephen Colbert Meets His Match

Last updated on: June 7, 2008 at 3:47 am By Edward Blackadder

As anyone familiar with the Colbert Report knows that Stephen Colbert typically runs rings around his interviewees, leaving them befuddled, and sometimes even violent. Every once and a while, though, he has on a guest who is, in his own words, a formidable opponent, and judging by his appearance on the show this week, I’d say that George Will falls into this later category. No matter what Colbert threw at him, Will always seemed able to match him wit for... Read more

Vox Nova At The Library: Against Islamic Extremism

Last updated on: June 7, 2008 at 12:00 am By Henry Karlson

What has become one of the most difficult things for Westerners to understand is that Islam is not a monolithic religion. There are many ways Islam has manifested in history, both in its normative forms, but also in its secondary and under-represented forms. Just as it would be wrong to form one’s understanding of Christianity by looking to Christian slave-owners in the 19thcentury (even if they could have appeared as normative to many looking to the Christian faith at that... Read more

Conservative Catholics being honest

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 4:31 pm By Policraticus

May I fairly characterize George Weigel and Deal Hudson as “conservative Catholics”? Whatever you may think, I want to take a moment to praise the two of them for exhibiting in recent publications a degree of honesty in their evaluations of the U.S. and Europe that I appreciate and respect. While sitting at the ER today, waiting for treatment for a brown recluse spider bite, I worked through a few chapters of Weigel’s The Cube and the Cathedral. While Weigel... Read more

If these two can come together, anything is possible!

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 11:23 am By Morning's Minion

Two Protestant ministers fight climate change! Read more

I Affirm

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 10:29 am By M.Z.

3. Explicit treatment of the problem was given in this Congregation’s “Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics” of December 29, 1975. That document stressed the duty of trying to understand the homosexual condition and noted that culpability for homosexual acts should only be judged with prudence. At the same time the Congregation took note of the distinction commonly drawn between the homosexual condition or tendency and individual homosexual actions. These were described as deprived of their essential and indispensable... Read more

Obama receives “terrorist” walking stick as gift

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 8:46 am By voxnovablog

As most of you know, Obama received yesterday an old maple walking stick from a 95-year old man from Virginia, which Obama joked he would use to “whup” Congress if they didn’t pass his health care bill. But… what is really behind the gift that may, at first glance, appear completely harmless? What else is Barack Hussein Obama planning to do with the walking stick? Perhaps he doesn’t want to tell us the whole story. The picture below shows a... Read more

The Constantine and Ashoka of Legend: A Study. IV-2: Comparison Continued

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 3:00 am By Henry Karlson

Part I Part II Part III Part IV-1 Despite the tremendous importance that the conversion of Constantine had for the Roman Empire, it seems that his story was often put to use to convince other rulers throughout the nations to convert to Christianity. It was believed that if a king converted, his people would follow. “To cite Constantine as an example of a ruler whose fortune decidedly turned for the better after his conversion offered clear advantages to the Roman... Read more

Vox Nova at the Library: Too Late to Die Young

Last updated on: June 6, 2008 at 1:44 am By Edward Blackadder

Sad news. Harriet McBride Johnson, attorney, author, and disability rights activists, has died. Like many people, I was familiar with Ms. Johnson mainly through her writings. Her book, Too Late to Die Young, is a wonderful collection of essays about various events in her life: protesting Reagan and Jerry Lewis, arguing with Peter Singer about whether it ought to be legal to kill people like her, running for City Counsel in Charleston, South Carolina on a platform of gun control,... Read more

What empire conquered Babylon?