I. The Sr. McBride Excommunication You can tell how fair CNN’s treatment of the recent Margaret McBride case was by the headline: “Nun excommunicated for approving life-saving abortion.” Or from the first paragraph, describing how it was an “agonizing decision” to have an abortion. Or from the second paragraph which describes “The problem: St. Joseph’s… Continue reading What About Life-Saving Abortions?
Tag: ethics
Babies and Morality
The New York Times has a fascinating report on infant morality (not mortality, mind you). The author is a child psychologist/researcher at Yale. Here’s a few of the highpoints. The piece begins with an interesting anecdote: Not long ago, a team of researchers watched a 1-year-old boy take justice into his own hands. The boy… Continue reading Babies and Morality
G.K. Chesterton, Sam Harris, and Margaret Downey on American Morals
John Armstrong has a good primer on the great G.K. Chesterton, easily one of the finest Catholic writers of the 20th Century. One of the commenters made reference to an essay Chesterton had written on American morals from 1929. It is called, incidentally, “On American Morals,” and it’s delightful: America is sometimes offered to us,… Continue reading G.K. Chesterton, Sam Harris, and Margaret Downey on American Morals
Sam Harris on Drugs (so to Speak)
I’ve mentioned before how poorly written and thought out I find Sam Harris’ anti-religious screed The End of Faith. Previously, I showed how his book begins with a premise that he admitted to be false in the endnotes: the idea that most suicide bombings occur because of religion generally, and Islam specifically. In fact, most… Continue reading Sam Harris on Drugs (so to Speak)
How Can Vegetarians Not Be Pro-Life?
A while back, PETA continued their descent into self-parody by releasing a statement opposing Obama’s swatting of a fly. No, seriously. Ok, actually, the story’s a little more complex: PETA was asked by numerous reporters, and said some pretty mild stuff about Obama not being Buddha, but the media coverage would have you believe that… Continue reading How Can Vegetarians Not Be Pro-Life?
30-week Old “Fetuses” Can Form Memories
Turns out that by the third week of the third trimester, unborn children can form memories. American Papist addresses the obvious question, that is: what implication ought this to have on the abortion debate? It’s pretty weird that unborn babies can remember things. Pretty strange and confusing memories, I would imagine (“it is very dark…… Continue reading 30-week Old “Fetuses” Can Form Memories
Dr. Julian Simon, the Catholic Church, and “Overpopulation”
An economist from the Cato Institute by the name of Julian Simon was something of a legendary figure due to his work debunking the various overpopulation myths. He famously bet Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, about the prices of various natural resources. Ehrlich’s theory was that as populations grew, scarcity would increase, and… Continue reading Dr. Julian Simon, the Catholic Church, and “Overpopulation”
Rabbi Waskow on Ends v. Means
On the flip side, the same rabbi I criticized for his crazy abortion double-speak in my last post, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, has a surprisingly lucid and thoroughly convincing argument about the ends v. means debate. On this point, at least, we’re in total agreement, and I was shocked by the tactics he described both of… Continue reading Rabbi Waskow on Ends v. Means
Does 2 Plus 2 Always Equal 4? An Answer to Skeptics
Yesterday, I was at a prayer group, and one of my friends, Carlos, and I were talking almost incredulously about the sort of debates which went on in the early to middle ages of the Church. One of the major debates over Mary was this: was she conceived without sin (the majority position in both… Continue reading Does 2 Plus 2 Always Equal 4? An Answer to Skeptics