Some Food for Thought
In case you find yourself with nothing do or happen to be in the mood for pondering the meaning of existence, I suggest you head over to
Peter Kreeft's site and check out his
"Twenty Arguments For the Existence of God." There he has compiled and summarized several arguments in an intelligent and approachable manner that serve as a good starting point for anyone interested in these questions.
Penn for Life in the News!
Penn for Life has been getting some major media coverage during the past couple of weeks. The group has recently appeared in the Daily Pennsylvanian, the Christian Science Monitor, the National Right to Life website, and even the Wall Street Journal online. It's a good moment to be part of the club, though there is still a lot of work to do. Congratulations to our fearless leaders Nina and Frank. Go ahead and check out the following links:
National Right to Life article
Christian Science Monitor article
Wall Street Journal online (type "Penn" in the "Edit/Find" tool of your browser since the article is pretty far down the page by now)
The Daily Pennsylvanian
Penn For Life homepage
P.S.: I'll post about the awesome experience of going to the March for Life later on when I have some pictures!
Breaking Myths in the Minds of Secular Fundamentalists
George Weigel's latest column about a rising female liberal Catholic politician in the UK is a must read. I am posting the full column below; I hope (and beg) that nobody will sue me. You can find Weigel's column,
The Catholic Difference, at the
Ethics at Public Policy Center website.
Ruth Kelly, Myth-Breaker
By George Weigel
Posted: Tuesday, January 25, 2005
ARTICLE
The Catholic Difference
Late last year, when Italian philosopher and cabinet minister Rocco Buttiglione was denied the post of European Minister of Justice because his convictions on sexual ethics and marriage were unacceptable to a gaggle of libertine Euro-parliamentarians, there was a certain plausibility to the whole exercise – at least from the point of view of secularists, leftists, and the establishment European media. Buttiglione, after all, was a minister in a center-right Italian government; Buttiglione is a devout, intellectually astute Catholic whose thinking is shaped by natural law reasoning and Catholic moral theology; and it’s an article of faith in the left-leaning worlds of European secularism (which include most of the mainstream Euro-media) that Catholic + conservative = in vitro fascist.
Why, then, has Britain’s Ruth Kelly been getting the Buttiglione Treatment in recent weeks?
Who, you ask, is Ruth Kelly? Let me introduce you.
Born in Northern Ireland in 1968, Ruth Kelly is a graduate of Oxford and the London School of Economics, where she earned a masters degree in the dismal science. After working as an economics correspondent for the (very left-oriented) Guardian, and later at the Bank of England, Kelly was elected to Parliament at age 29 in 1997 as a Labor Party candidate. Having held a series of sub-cabinet posts, Ruth Kelly was appointed to the cabinet last month by Prime Minister Tony Blair as Education Secretary. (At which point, observers remembered that Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was another Oxford graduate who’d begun her ministerial career in the department 36-year old Ruth Kelly now headed.)
Then came the Buttiglione Treatment.
The fact that Ruth Kelly doesn’t conform to certain feminist conventions – she’s a Catholic, a daily communicant, married once, the mother of four small children, and vigorously pro-life – evidently didn’t agree with one fellow-MP (another woman, no less), who labeled Kelly "that cow." Kelly’s previous decisions to decline the Health and Overseas Development cabinet portfolios because those jobs would have entangled her with contraception and abortion didn’t sit well with the keepers of the feminist flame, either.
The British science establishment quickly went into its default mode in such matters: the Galileo case was back! A senior geneticist, Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge, told newspapers that it was "very worrying" that someone with Kelly’s religious convictions might, in overseeing government funding of scientific research, impede embryo-destructive stem-cell research, thus producing a "schizophrenic" and "confused" situation like that in the United States. (By which adjectives, Dr. Lovell-Badge apparently evidently means a situation in which the law requires that scientific experimentation take place within boundaries that protect innocent human life.) The Times of London summed up this change in the Ruth Kelly indictment by writing that "some MPs [Members of Parliament] fear her religion may cloud her judgment."
"Cloud" was the give-away, of course. In an objective news story, that sentence would have concluded, "...inform her judgment." But in the intellectually insular world of European secularism – which has many parallels on this side of the Atlantic – religious faith in general and Catholicism in particular are, by definition, obscurantist and irrational. How could Catholic moral theology "inform" anyone’s judgment? Catholicism, according to the settled mythology of the Euro-secularist left, clouds judgment. Or distorts judgment. Or replaces "judgment" with robotic obedience.
Inflamed by The Da Vinci Code, British conspiracy theorists are in a lather because Ruth Kelly has participated in activities organized by Opus Dei. What really earned Ruth Kelly the Buttiglione Treatment, though, is the fact that she’s a myth-breaker: day by day, her public life refutes the canard that serious public Catholicism in the 21st century means incipient fascism. For who could plausibly accuse this bright and accomplished trade union member of being – gasp! – one of those dreaded conservatives? Conservatives and former Guardian writers don’t get elected Labor MP for Bolton West.
Ruth Kelly isn’t just a sign of contradiction for Britain’s secular left, though. What will accommodationist Catholic legislators in America – Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Mikulski, for example – make of a popular, competent, liberal, Oxford-certified Catholic woman and politician who’s convinced that Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae got it right?
How to Avoid God
A former atheist gives the following advice:
Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you'd be safer to stick to the papers. You'll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal.
- C. S. Lewis, "The Seeing Eye"
Listen Up Cynics!
To see through all things is the same as not to see.
-C.S. Lewis,
The Abolition of Man
A Brief Agenda
As a general rule I try to encourage consistency whenever possible. Thus, I have decided to point out something that secularist reformers committed to the separation of Church and State ought to add to their agendas in order to be more effective in their efforts - names of cities. I am deeply disturbed that apparently no one has paid attention to such an offensive reality in the past. Has no one realized how offensive the names of some of our cities are? These names need to be changed for more appropriate ones that do not violate our beloved secular identity. There is no telling what may happen if my suggestions are not heeded and these blatantly offensive and fanatically religious forms of influence are allowed to persist in society. Here is the list:
1. Los Angeles, California: I realize that most Americans might not have gotten perfect grades during Spanish class in high school, but come on, this one is just to obvious to ignore! To call one of our most populous and important cities after these strange beings that clearly derive from the Judeo-Christian patriarchal religion and which are closely connected with an outdated black-and-white morality could hardly be more insulting to our open, multi-cultural society. Fortunately, some progress has been made by transforming the city's name to LA, but this is not enough. Who knows what may happen if one day a child decides to ask what those two letters stand for? Let us not dwell long on such dark thoughts, but I will say that I fear such talk may inevitably lead to the G word. For this reason, I suggest re-Christenin... I mean, renaming the city Lots of Actorston; that way, when kids ask, they'll get an answer that sounds logical enough and inquire no further. A tragedy will be averted.
2. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Who was the right-wing fanatic that named this one? Santa Fe means nothing less than Holy Faith - as in,
the Holy Faith. What could be more more exclusive or offensive? Next thing you know, the Pope will be running for mayor! This cannot be tolerated within a progressive society like our own. I propose we change the name to Santa's Fair! The switch wouldn't be too dramatic, and it would be great for business. We could turn the entire town into a magical Holiday Land Themepark all year round! And as we know, Santa's really for everyone, so no one need be offended.
3. San Antonio, Texas: One ought to expect something like this from the most backward state in the Union. San Antonio? Give me a break! When will this end? Who thought of the idea of naming cities after "saints," or more accurately, ignorant religious weirdos? The worst part is that there are
many saints that go by this name, and by the time some inquisitive person is done finding out about all of them they might well be converted! To think that one of these "Saint Anthonies" was the very founder of Christian monasticism! There is really no telling what could happen. Our malls might suddenly go empty with people going off into the mountains to worship in some strange building. Thousands of boutiques would close and, and... well, its just too horrible to think about. Again, immediate action is needed. Indeed, what we need is an action hero! I propose that, from now on, the city be called Antonio Banderasburg. It would pay tribute to a great actor who has enriched our culture with touching works of art. And it wouldn't be offensive - everyone
loves Antonio.
Well, you guys get the idea. All this needs to be done soon. The very deliverance of our State from the grasping claws of the religious-right depends on it.
And now the final question of the night: What would a secularist do if the separation of Church and state were one of the Ten Commandments?
Tangerine
It annoys me when I have to cut open a tangerine as if it were an orange -
the whole point of a tangerine is that it can be peeled with ease.
A Load of Good Ol' Fashioned Crap
I've been wanting to post during the last few days but for some reason every time I sit in front of the computer it feels like writing would be too much of an effort. Given that unfortunate state of affairs, I have decided to just write something, anything, no matter how crappy, just to see if I can get my drive for writing "un-stuck." I think part of the problem is a short story that I've been writing since the summer. At any given moment I think that I'm just days away from finishing it, but it somehow has continued to drag on for months. The worst part is that, actually, I have not even written that much. It can't be more than two pages (single spaced). And I don't even know if it's going to work or not. At first it seemed really straightforward, but once I started writing it, it really began to get me into all sorts of trouble. Now I think I've finally found a way to make the story work, but I'm not sure whether I'll get my self in a pickle again once I summon the strength and patience to sit down and work on it. I was supposed to finish it during this Christmas break, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen.
In other news, I've started looking for a job since it actually seems like in less than six months I'll be Penn alum. It's very difficult to believe that undergrad is almost over since I really still feel like a freshman (though smarter and better looking, of course). At the same time, by now I've started getting excited about graduation and having a "real" job. It's somewhat of a surreal experience to think that I probably will be getting a salary, one of those strange things that you hear about from older generations. From what I've heard, it works a little bit like a drug: it becomes a real necessity and you always need it in larger quantities. My plan, however, is to kick the habit in one or two years, in order to go to grad school. The problem is that I have simply no clue what I would want to study. I know that I want to learn much, much more, but grad school is much more focused than undergrad so I don't know what to pick. I sort of wish I could take an extra two years of random classes for pleasure; that would be amazing! Especially if I didn't have to worry about my GPA. But in any case, I'm still excited about graduation, it looks like a pretty intense experience.
Also, next semester I'm going to be writing my senior International Relations thesis. I'm quite enthused about it. I still don't know what specific issue I'm going to be dealing with, but it's probably going to have something to do with the Church and European international relations during the latter half of the 20th Century. If you know of any development during this period that you think would be good to explore, please let me know, I'm still shopping around for stuff to analyze. I'm thinking of posting my progress up on the blog as I go along, that way you guys can help me out with your comments.
And now let's go back to the jobs thing. I just can't seem to be able to decide what kind of job I would want. The problem is that I want a job in which I can help people, think and use my analytical skills, write, and get paid a decent amount. I also want a job that will look good on a grad school application, and hopefully one which allows me to stay within a two-hour radius of Philly. These restrictions end up making my job search pretty difficult. Every job that I might like for one reason, ends up failing on another level. Thus, jobs that I might enjoy would either not be likely to help me get into grad school, or pay salaries that are less than ideal. Of course, I really have no right to whine, since my prospects of getting a job are still looking fairly good, which is more than a lot of people can say. And yet I can't help but wonder: could there not be an eccentric billionaire out there willing to pay me for blogging, pseudo-philosophizing and just having fun? Such people ought to exist.
Wow, what a long and boring post. Sounds like something out of LiveJournal. Dear readers, I sincerely apologize. Please don't hate me.
El Año Viejo
Porro de Crescencio Salcedo
Yo no olvido el año viejo,
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas,
Ay yo no olvido el año viejo,
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas!
Me dejo una chiva, una burra negra,
Una yegua blanca y una buena suegra.
Ay me dejo una chiva, una burra negra,
Una yegua blanca y una buena suegra!
Yo no olvido el año viejo,
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas.
Yo no olvido, yo no olvido el año viejo
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas.
Me dejó una chivita, una burra muy negrita,
Una yegua muy blanquita y una buena suegra.
Me dejó, me dejó, me dejó, me dejó
Cosa buena, cosa muy bonita!
Tremendous Trifles wishes you a Happy New Year 2005!!!
