Monthly Archives: October 2014

Love, Thomism, Jews, and Gay Marriage

Love is what you bring into your circle of concern. You value it for your own happiness and the happiness of the other. It’s what you’ve found a way to work with rather than wall yourself off from, marginalize, and … Continue reading

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What are Sex Organs For? Thomism vs. Evolution

We know that evolution high-jacks organs all the time to different purposes depending on context. The first tongue may have had the singular purpose of tasting, then it got used by the cat for cleaning the pelt, then by humans … Continue reading

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What’s Really Essential About Us? Do Thomists Get This Right?

If we’re heterosexual, God, nature, and evolution have conspired heavy against us in terms of what our essential function is from the age of 13 forward, which is to procreate. But we don’t conform to this aspect of our essential … Continue reading

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Thomas Aquinas Says We Are Children of Wrath. Is He Right?

In the fourth book of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles, chapter 52, there is quite a dark vision of the world on display. At one point, for example, Aquinas, echoing the apostle Paul, speaks of all humanity as “children of wrath.” God, … Continue reading

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Brute Facts and Sufficient Reasons

The most brute fact of all is learning that we will die, which we then cast about for an explanation that will sufficiently account for this fact: “As in, forever? Does someone will this death of mine?” In our searching … Continue reading

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Is God A Brute Fact Or Does God Not Exist?

If God exists, why is there some Being rather than no Being? Put another way, with regard to the existence of contingent beings (“Why is there something rather than nothing?”), God presumably functions as the necessary and sufficient cause for … Continue reading

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Could Gay Marriage Drive A Revolution In Thomistic Thought?

At his blog, Thomist philosopher Edward Feser quotes Michael Levin as saying: “What homosexual rights activists really want [from anti-discrimination laws] is not [merely] access to jobs but legitimation of their homosexuality.” This is a distraction. The motive of activists … Continue reading

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Sexual Prohibitions Require Justification

At his blog, Thomist philosopher Edward Feser recently wrote the following: “Sexual desire is extremely powerful and the demands of sexual morality an especially irksome imposition on the will. Hence the tendency of liberalism is to try as far as … Continue reading

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Does The Cosmos Have A Purpose?

I see no evidence that the cosmos has an end to which it is tending. It’s vast and old, violent and evolving. It appears to care not for us. (Auden captured this beautifully in his poem, “Musee des Beaux Arts.”) … Continue reading

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If You Oppose Gay Marriage, Justify Your Position

Gay marriage is not just an abstract question. We’re talking about the lives of real gay people, their equality and dignity, and their right to flourish openly as who they are. Are you in solidarity with gay people’s assertions of … Continue reading

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Gay Marriage and Thomism

At Catholic philosopher Edward Feser’s blog, a poster in the threads wrote the following: “If I start with a conclusion, then perhaps I can manufacture a theory (or modify an existing theory) to arrive at my desired conclusion, but that … Continue reading

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Two Arguments Against Thomism

I think of metaphysics as akin to poetry. If you can’t ground arguments in empiricism and experience, you can’t really say with certainty whether what you’re claiming is in fact true or merely clever. So my first argument against metaphysical … Continue reading

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Soft on Islam?

Andrew Sullivan notes an irony in the Islam debate: It’s a little amazing to me to watch some liberals who get extremely upset at religious people refusing to bake a cake for someone else’s wedding on religious grounds, suddenly seeing … Continue reading

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Jeremy England on the Origin of Life

__________ More on Jeremy England here.

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