Monthly Archives: July 2009
Positive vs. Negative Libertarianism
Part two in a series to divide and illuminate. Why do we believe in liberty? Not as a question of natural rights versus consequentialism – that’s a different debate entirely. There are (at least) two fundamental ways to answer this question that cross both sides of the aforementioned argument: I believe in liberty because I [...]Fiscal Conservatism vs. Economic Conservatism
It’s well known by most people now that “Conservative” and “Liberal” are, by their naked selves, mostly useless terms. The politically sophisticated talk about social Liberalism and Conservatism and economic or fiscal Liberalism and Conservatism, dividing the spectrum into two dimensions. The terms “fiscal conservative” and “economic conservative” are thrown about almost interchangeably among politicians [...]The Political Philosophy of Star Trek
Star Trek often catches a lot of flack from the American Right for portraying a Socialist space utopia. Certainly there is a vast, far reaching central government, and the human race is indeed portrayed as enlightened beyond self-interest. But should Star Trek be totally thrown out for its political philosophy? I believe there’s more to [...]The Balance
The balance concept of works is one of the most bedeviling concepts in pop religion. The idea goes, if I do more good things than bad things, God will accept me. Unfortunately, even Christians all too often buy into the balance model. Not so crude a balance model as exists in pop religion – we take James 2:10 to mean that even one act of sin outweighs all the good works in the world. This is passably true on the surface, but it is still fundamentally a balance model…
Consistent Socialism
If we want to go after inequality in opportunity as such, the way to do it is not by handing out healthcare and welfare and social security. These completely miss the fundamental engenderer of inequality by decades. The only consistent application of the Socialist ideal is to create and nationalize a child-raising industry, removing that right from their parents…Godliness and Godlikeness
We often think of the Christian life as becoming progressively more like God – in character, if not in substance. Though this is true in some respects, it is not an appropriate description of the whole of sanctification. Indeed, through the process we are to become less like God in certain respects, for naturally we [...]Objection Answered
For a time the question of culpability in predestination was one which I had a sense of the right answer, but for the life of me could not articulate coherently: the Romans 9 “God’s God. He can do whatever He wants” is true in every sense, but also hollow – why would God be glorified [...]Constructing a Spontaneous Order
For a long time in the Classical Liberal tradition, there has been a tension between rationally constructed systems (for example Mises’ a priori epistemology) and the antirational purely spontaneous orders proposed by Hayek. The former stresses the universality of human nature, but does not generally refer to a legal order without the assumption (Hayek would argue it is a poor one) that it can be rationally constructed. The latter emphasizes the limits of human knowledge, the uniqueness of human experience, and the futility of deliberate construction…The Law as Values
People from the time the law was given have looked at it as a series of categorical imperatives – things that one must abide by no matter what and regardless of the reason. It becomes more about the action itself than the spirit behind it. It was exactly this thinking that led Jesus to rebuke the Pharisees for adhering to the letter of the law while completely missing its spirit (Mark 2:23-28)…