-
In Christian theology there is a recurring tension between “Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you” (Hosea 4:6) and “Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless” (Titus 3:15). On the one hand, we are exhorted not only to know God, but to know about God [...]
-
20. Vintersorg – Jordpuls Avant-Garde/Folk Black Metal I wouldn’t ordinarily include it, but it’s the first listenable Vintersorg album in over a decade. 19. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will Post-rock Slightly more boring than their last few albums. 18. Subway To Sally – Schwarz In Schwarz Medieval/Folk Metal Nothing we haven’t [...]
-
Disclaimer: So far as I know Hayek has never actually coerced a kitten. The idea of coercion is central to many strands of Libertarian thought, held up as the summum malum and opposed to voluntarism. But to actually define coercion precisely enough to build a political theory on it is a bit trickier. In general, [...]
-
Last month, I asserted that the Bible speaks nothing about how society should be governed, but has political implications only so far as it binds the conscience of the voter. Here, however, let us move beyond particular issues to whole ideologies. Scripture says nothing about Capitalism or Socialism. But can a Christian in good conscience [...]
-
“If you’re doing what you’re doing for reward and punishment, it’s not really morality.” I’ve seen this trope more than once in Atheist circles, that traditional religious morality is somehow less moral for being reward-oriented. Atheists, it is contended, are more moral for doing the right thing – not for reward’s sake, but just because it’s right . . .
-
This is a revision of my thoughts on the intersection of faith and politics that I first essayed in The Just Society. Where these two differ, this post, despite the less grand title, supersedes the old. The Independence of Faith and Politics Nothing is easier, it seems, than to draw political implications from scripture. The [...]
-
S&P has finally downgraded its rating of US government debt, once considered the safest investment you could make. The government’s cost of borrowing will inevitably increase, as will interest rates tied to government securities. And not least, it’s a major blow to American ego. So who’s to blame? For Democrats, blame lies with Republicans who [...]
-
One of the great marring flaws of Mill’s treatise is the persistent confusion of society with government. Though he does distinguish them explicitly at certain points, far more often “society” exercises the force of law over an individual. This error, his aside on Calvinism suggests, stems from a muddy idea of authority…
-
Yesterday I looked briefly at Bitcoin in the context of various conceptions of money. Today, with the benefit of having an actual Bitcoin economy to look at, I’d like to expand on that with a more thorough analysis, and some prediction thrown in for good measure. First of all, a strict distinction between token money and specie money is, well, specious. Hayek explains. . .
-
Last month I wrote about Hayek’s and Rothbard’s conflicting monetary ideals. Much of the difference between their visions can be chalked up to differing predictions, but Rothbard’s prescription involves one important proviso that Hayek’s does not – namely, the institutionalization of the 100%-reserve warehouse receipt model of money. It was the failure of Rothbard to [...]
-
Albert Mohler, in his essay Why They Hate It So, argues that the view of Hell as a consequence of sin rather than the punishment for sin undermines the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. I have of course argued that Hell is a consequence, but I am certainly no enemy of substitutionary atonement. The fundamental truth which consequentialist and punishmental partisans miss is that, when speaking of sovereign divine action, punishment and consequence are indistinguishable categories. . . .
-
Within Austrian economic theory, there is a fundamental philosophical split between the “evolutionists” following Hayek, and the “moralists” following Rothbard. The former see the world in terms of dynamic, spontaneously ordering evolution of norms, where the latter see the world in terms of fixed and universally applicable ethical norms. This is perhaps a simplification, but [...]
-
Economists are taught to take economic values as an ultimate given. But political values are different. Where my neighbor’s economic values affect me only in diffuse and necessary ways, his political values have the potential to affect me in very unnecessary ways. But the justice of any particular law cannot be decided based on a standard of coercion, for coercion itself is a slippery standard. “[A] continuum . . . inheres between private, voluntary agreement and coercive local government.” . . .
-
ROME – With church membership still down after two centuries of recession, officials at the Vatican Reserve in 2009 announced the resumption of indulgences, a policy dubbed “Plenary Easing”, to spur church recovery. Two years in, however, some are beginning to question its effectiveness. Since 2009, the value of the Plenary Indulgence has fallen 17% [...]
-
Human trafficking is the biggest form of slavery in history. But sometimes it seems half the battle in the anti-trafficking movement is fighting despair within its own ranks. Fighting trafficking head on is like plucking leaves off a vine of ivy. But durable institutional solutions do exist. when we look at the types of labor demand supplied by trafficking, we can see a pattern emerge…
-
Just over two years and over twice as many posts after
the last one. Also includes Wordles of the blog comments and of Twitter @thrica.
-
Red Son is a retelling of the Superman story where Superman’s ship lands 12 hours later into a collective farm in Ukraine. There are strong moral parallels between Communist Superman and the Superman we know, but it’s not morally homogenous like the original. The book has Superman seriously grapple with the moral and ideological consequences of a Superman to the Communist ideal…
-
Rob Bell should be a Calvinist. And I don’t mean that in the way that anyone should. I mean he’s just one step from already being there. In the midst of all the hubbub surrounding Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins, the guy writing for The Tenth Leper actually got a pre-release and read it, [...]
-
For as long as there have been social conservatives, there has been the threat of chimp marriage, or dolphin marriage, or christmas tree marriage. Judging from the news, one could even allege these fears have borne out. Let’s start out with a definition of marriage. “Between a man and a woman” is not it. Lots of things happen between a man and a woman that are not marriage, from business relationships to one-night-stands…
-
It has become a standard argument from those who believe in the absolute sovereignty of God to speak of two wills of God – the revealed, normative word, and the inscrutable, positive, decree. Luther draws the distinction between God preached, and God not preached – that is, between the Word and the Substance of God. . . .
-
Most modern political philosophy is built upon the first principle of human rights. Of course, even from this starting point, political philosophies diverge wildly on what they consider among those rights. Clearly one cannot have an enforceable right to everything. In principle, there must be a way to distinguish useful and beneficial rights from unnecessary or even harmful ones…
-
What we mean by “law” is a question germane both to religious and political philosophy. In some sense, it just seems to mean “necessity”. This seems to be the usage in Romans 7:23, where Paul talks about “another law” in his members waging war against the law of the Lord in his inner being: his [...]