Monthly Archives: April 2015

Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace: Traditionalists Turn Gay Marriage Into Greek Drama

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

A wedding ceremony needn’t consist of drama–unless someone objects. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.” If someone objects, then the Greek drama starts. As in the conflict in Sophocles’ Antigone, in which King Creon feels he has to stop … Continue reading →

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Let Them Eat (Or Not Eat) Wedding Cake: Religious Conscience, Gay Marriage, And Empathy For Others

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

With regard to bakers who might balk, out of conscience, in making a cake for a gay wedding, I think many of us who are heterosexual and support gay marriage have a problem: our empathy goes all in one direction–toward … Continue reading →

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Imagination, Desire, And Action Through Chemistry: My Theory Of Free Will

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

In terms of free will, I don’t think we have contra-causal free will (free will that actually interferes with and pushes around determinate matter). I think our brains are modular, governed by often contending impulses, and that sometimes–or even characteristically … Continue reading →

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Flying Into The Sun

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

What would it be like to be a dog? I think of Blake’s binding and loosing of energies here. Wouldn’t it be great if life could always be this energetic, free, joyous, and simple? At the leap, notice the sun–and … Continue reading →

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Disappointment, Awareness Attribution, And Empathy: How To Ground Morality Absent God

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

Because I’m a nominalist, chopping up the world without divine guidance, a theist might think any reference I might make to “humanity” can’t possibly mean anything, but is something arbitrary. Therefore, I might just as well be an “it”–and treat … Continue reading →

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How Evolution Can Help Us Think About Gay Marriage

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and gay marriage. The wisdom we take from evolution is the same that a good economist takes from the Invisible Hand: absent really good reasons, let things be. Don’t be hubristic; don’t interfere too much with … Continue reading →

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Form v. Change: Gay Marriage, Thomism, Capitalism, and Evolution

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

I’ve had a modest insight: the dividing line that I’ve been trying to articulate between Thomists and myself surrounding gay marriage can actually be pretty succinctly stated: Thomists take clues from the nature of form to guide them in how … Continue reading →

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Why Call “Gay Marriage” Marriage?

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

Conservatives sometimes ask why gay marriage has to be called “marriage” at all. Why not, for example, stick with “civil unions”–or adopt some other distinctive name? But there already is a serviceable name distinction: civil marriage v. religious marriage. Gays … Continue reading →

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Behavior Drives The Evolution Of Form: One Reason Thomistic Natural Law Theorizing Is Dubious

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Santi Tafarella

With regard to natural law theorizing (what constitutes rational or natural behavior for an individual), contemporary Thomists are not, in my view, taking proper account of the fact that, in the higher species of animals, form does not drive the … Continue reading →

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