School is Back in Session

So let's get our brains working again. The Professor in the video gives a capsule version of Natural (Moral) Law Theory. His book What We Can't Not Know could serve as a primer. Then you could move on to The Line Through the Heart. I'm behind in my reading so I added them to my Wishlist.

*A Primer on the Natural Law...*

...by J. Budziszewski.

It's:

A Primer on the Natural Law...

...by J. Budziszewski.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

The Two Iron Laws of HIstory

according to Mark Shea are:

1. What could it hurt?

followed by,

2. How were we supposed to know?

And so I give you the contemporary mantra: "Gays are people just like us and should have the right to marry and raise children just like us."

But Nature is only mocked at someone's expense. So we're entering phase two of the Gay Marriage debate already. And the children are the ones to suffer.

Persecution

isn't a subject in many sermons nowadays. (I'll omit ranting a out abortion, contraception and the other elephants in the room.) But my growing sense of unease in our culture of comfort and self is tweaked by little signs of a coming storm.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
(Matt 5:10-12 NAB)

We are too comfortable, too sheep-like in the presence of the increasing hostility of the world elite towards Jesus, His teaching and His disciples. We need to prepare ourselves and our children for the troubles that are coming.

Ok, sermon over. Now to the news:

Catholic prof fired for giving Church teaching on homosexuality:

Our good friend and fellow Catholic convert, Dr. Kenneth Howell, who worked for St. John's Catholic Newman Center as Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, and taught Introduction to Catholicisim and Modern Catholic Thought at the University of Illinois, Urbana, has been fired for relating the Catholic teaching on homosexuality in his class:

• "Illinois professor fired for giving Catholic teaching on homosexuality" (CNA, July 9, 2010).
  
  
• "University of Illinois Instructor Fired Over Catholic Beliefs" (FOX News, July 9, 2010).
  
  
• [Advisory: this article is vile, anti-Catholic, and illustrates why a secular academic climate today could get a good and decent Catholic professor fired]: P.Z. Myers, "Honesty about sex is going to disqualify a lot of professors of Catholic dogma" (Pharyngula, July 9, 2010).

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Sola scriptura minus the scriptura » GetReligion

Those supporting things like Same Sex "Marriage" are caught in a confusion about the arguments against the same. They believe that their opponents are arguing a Divine Command kind of morality. The philosopher, following Socrates, wants to know, are things moral because God says so (ergo morality is arbitrary) or does God command it because it is good (ergo morality is superior to God). Saint Thomas answers "that God creates moral norms that reflect his own essence, meaning that his demands are not arbitrary...". All of this is covered in Professor Kreeft's book, of course. And this is the foundation for Natural Law reasoning . Which lead us to Professor Finnis' book. Aren't we glad that I read and shared?

So are senior editors up to Philosophy 101? Well, not everyone:

Sola scriptura minus the scriptura » GetReligion:

Newsweek’s cover story when I read the first line. It was just that bad. It was written by senior editor Lisa Miller who oversees all of the magazine’s religion coverage. Which is pretty shocking when you look at the unbelievable ignorance on display in her grossly unfair first paragraph:

Read the whole thing.

(Via GetRelgion.)