Doubting Darwin

Discussing a trove of fossils unearthed several decades ago in Southern China, paleontologist J. Y. Chen was quite frank about its evidentiary incompatibility with “orthodox” Darwinian theory. “In China, we can criticize Darwin, but not the government,” he observed. “In America, you can criticize the government, but not Darwin.” That was a political eon ago,

Rescuing our Rights

As previously noted, theories of “systemic racism” currently in fashion constitute the latest leftist ruse to rob citizens of our most cherished rights. Once we concede that anyone can be treated as guilty, or awarded the equivalent of damages, and all without a trial, then the rule of law is abolished, and we have the

True Philosophy

After standing up to bloodthirsty tyrants with holy cheek, Peter and John might have been disposed to boast of their victory. Instead, these “true philosophers,” as St. John Chrysostom calls them, return “to their own company,” and join them in a most sober and instructive prayer (Acts 4:23-31). These earliest of Christians reflect on the

What is Political Philosophy?

Philosophy is the love of wisdom. To love something, we must know it. Had our Creator not left the stamp of his own Wisdom upon our soul, we would have no idea wisdom exists, and would be helpless to recognize it even if we happened to stumble upon it. By the same token, no one

Questioning Authority

They found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. Luke 2:46 One of the many prejudices masquerading as enlightenment in modern times is the notion that reason and religion are antithetical modes of confronting reality. How many voices call for “dialogue,” when they really mean

Pancake People vs. Cathedral Souls

In this fine essay (pages 21-34), Margaret Hughes considers what makes a cathedral like Notre Dame simultaneously “delightful” and “terrible.” The answer helps to explain why contemporary man finds it hard to appreciate, much less replicate, this kind of awful beauty. Modern philosophy abandons the classical notion of the soul, by which our inner lives

Missing the Middle, For the Love of Money

The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends. Apemantus to Timon As Tony Tanner notes in his Introduction to Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, the play presents us with a succession of extremes. Timon begins as a civic demigod, feasting the senators and lords of ancient Athens with an apparently bottomless

Knowing the Season

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. luke 21:33 One of the most common forms of moral relativism is historicism, the notion that right and wrong are determined by the era in which one lives. Though few could define the term or explain its philosophic lineage, historicism rears its

Each a King unto Himself (under God)

Writing to the King of Cyprus, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) advises him to submit his governance to three guides: “the authority of Holy Writ,” “the teachings of the philosophers,” and “the practice of worthy princes.” Like sailing a ship, governance is the skillful direction of a body to its “due end.” A pilot may “proceed