An interesting idea from Paul Contino, a professor at Pepperdine University, writing in the LA Times: “We can do better. And help is on the way.” When I heard that refrain in Sen. John F. Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, it reminded me of why I am a Democrat at heart. In…

Many people in the debate about cloning curiously assume that “reproductive” cloning is monstrous and immoral, while “therapeutic” cloning is perfectly fine, or at least less morally objectionable than reproductive cloning. I say “curiously” because it seems to me that the truth of the matter is almost exactly the reverse. Think about it. Reproductive cloning,…

Calvin College has a nice virtual library of Christian Philosophy. In browsing it I came across this article by Richard Mouw, an evangelical philosopher, called “On Letting Chickens Strut Their Stuff.” Mouw rejects the view of the likes of Peter Singer who say that an animal might have greater moral worth than a newborn infant,…

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we…

Earlier I suggested that the moral law is the means God provides us for restoring our broken relationships with him and each other. Let’s explore the implications of this a little more. One consequence is that the moral law is not an end in itself. It is the route we take back to God, but…

Will Saletan has a good article over at Slate debunking some of the myths and half-truths that are being peddled to drum up support for the Democrats’ position on stem-cell research. To wit: The stem-cell movement has become political. “Three years ago, the president enacted a far-reaching ban on stem-cell research,” Kerry asserted in his…

Keith Burgess-Jackson asks what theists imagine the connection between morality and religion to be. It’s a question that deserves pondering since so many of us unthinkingly assume that God and morality must be intimately linked. Keith rightly points out that it’s quite possible to be an atheist and still believe in an objective morality. And…

The new edition of the eclectic online Christian journal The New Pantagruel has been posted. There are two articles that look particularly interesting: “Realism Against Reality” by Eric Miller and “Christianity and Liberalism: Two Alternative Religious Approaches” by David T. Koyzis. (Incidentally, I also highly recommend Prof. Koyzis’ book Political Visions and Illusions.)

Oh, God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom Thou gavest the earth in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should…

For the idea that the voter himself is making the decision to have any real validity, it would be necessary for the options presented to the electorate to include all possible choices. In a two-party system this is never the case. The voter chooses not a position of principle but the less objectionable of two…