Thomas More Institute

for a more informed ethical engagement in public and professional life

Science Versus Religion? The Insights and Oversights of the 'New Atheists' - Brad S. Gregory

The assertion of the ‘New Atheists’ that the natural sciences somehow oppose all religious truth claims about the natural world is false. These atheists mistakenly treat all religion as one. In fact, some teachings are far superior to other blatantly mistaken ones. Moreover, while claims that believers have sinned may be true, ‘any implication that specific religious truth claims are therefore undermined is fallacious’. ‘Christian truth claims…do not stand or fall depending on the actions of Christians’. The ‘New Atheists’ have – probably unconsciously – adopted a presupposition that if God exists, he must ‘belong conceptually at least in certain respects to the same ontological order as everything else’. This departs from the Christian tradition of a God ‘distinct from and noncompetitive with his creation [sic]’ and ‘incomprehensibly transcendent’. Consequently, God ‘cannot in principle be shown to be a “delusion” on the basis of any scientific finding’; rather, ‘the epistemological self-restraints of… natural sciences precludes saying anything… about whether something might transcend the natural order’. To claim that modern science leaves no room for God is quite false and the ‘New Atheists’ must look beyond the strict ‘naturalistic horizons of [their] ontological prison’, becoming more self-conscious and self-critical.

© Logos (St. Paul, M.N.)

When Freedom Isn't Free - Theodore Dalrymple

When a bed-and-breakfast establishment refused to admit a homosexual couple, this was reported to the police by the couple in question who invoked the Equality Act 2006. While no prosecution followed the case received fresh attention when a senior Tory, Christopher Grayling, spoke out in favour of the bed-and-breakfast. The furore this provoked might have suggested he was ‘advocating medieval punishments for homosexuals’. The author argues ‘it is a necessary condition of freedom that private citizens should be allowed to treat with, or to refuse to treat with, whomever they choose…’. Liberalism, in the current public commentary, too often ‘turns into its opposite, illiberalism’.

© City Journal (New York City, N.Y.)

A Liberal Education Provides Freedom of Thought - Torbjorn Elensky

Emphasis is often given to the importance of critical thinking. But thinking critically is something different than having a relativist concept of the truth or lazily questioning every authority.

© Axess Magasin (Stockholm)

Science and the Decline of Liberal Arts - Patrick J. Deneen

In this article, the author traces the decaying state of modern universities to the decline of the humanities. Previously, they were at the heart of university education and, through classical works, sought to communicate ‘what it was to be human’. The rise of modern science and its insistence on not only understanding the world but transforming it resulted in a re-orientation of priorities in the university system. With an emphasis on scientific training and technological innovation, ‘the humanities began to question their place within the university’ and tried to ‘outdo their scientific competitors’, which provided a ‘fertile seedbed for self-destructive tendencies’. Underlying the entire article is the notion that, if the humanities wish to restore their place in the university, they need to return to their original and ‘proper understanding of liberty': not as liberation from constraint, but rather, as a capacity to govern ourselves.

© The New Atlantis (Washington, DC)

Putting Ethics Back Together Again: A British Perspective - John Haldane

Much of our moral confusion comes from our failure to find a replacement for the Judaeo-Christian outlook that once animated the West. We need, and generally now lack, a philosophical understanding of human life.

© ThePublicDiscourse.com

Mothers in Combat Boots - Mary Eberstadt

Although women in general may have been well integrated into military service this does not necessarily mean that mothers should take part in active combat. Before the 1970s, women with dependent children were not allowed to enlist in the military and pregnancy would prompt a discharge. Nowadays, however, the armed forces frequently send ‘mothers and soon-to-be mothers in harm’s way’. This morally questionable practice can, says the author, be traced to the scarcity of ‘warm bodies’ able to serve and, in addition, a progressive equality agenda. By pointing to numerous statistics illustrating the adverse effects on children and families of mothers in combat, the author calls for a thorough reassessment of military policies towards women.

© Policy Review (Washington, D.C.)

Music and Morality - Roger Scruton

In a culture which seeks to be ‘non-judgmental’, music is no longer exposed to true criticism but only to ‘technical analysis and know-how’, even though music can have a profound impact on its devotees. Using a quote from Plato’s Republic, ‘The ways of poetry and music are not changed anywhere without change in the most important laws of the city’, the author argues that music has a profound impact on our human character and, consequently, on how our societies are governed. Pop music, which enjoys ‘a status higher than any other cultural product’, is at the centre of the argument as it is responsible for a ‘regression of listening’. The elusion of a rhythm in pop music and the fact that it is more often ‘overheard’ than actually listened to, result in a deterioration  of social expressions of music – one dances at instead of with. Thus, in stressing submission, pop music could have the tacit effect of imposing a culture of ‘non-judgmentality’ on its listeners and, consequently, society at large.

© The American Spectator (Arlington, VA)

Everyone Matters, No Matter What - Wesley J. Smith

The idea of euthanasia clinics was once thought of as science fiction but has, alas, become reality today with an international clientele making one-way trips to Switzerland where they are legal. Killing as an answer to problem of suffering has ‘become de rigeur among the intellectual class’, argues the author. The inherent dignity of every human being is losing ground to a purely materialist, nihilist and post-modern conception of man whose moral worthiness ‘is solely a by-product of some measurable attribute or capacity’. This can only be overcome by ‘embracing human exceptionalism’ and by suffering with the suffering through love of our neighbour.

© First Things (New York)

Looking for an Honest Man - Leon R. Kass

The author, trained in medicine and biology, discusses the purpose of a humanistic education by tracing his own search for ‘wisdom about the meaning of our humanity’. As with Diogenes, this search starts with a quest for the idea of human nature. Furthering this inquiry into the field of science, the author argues that science, and especially medicine, does not concern itself enough with the human whole. Contrary to some views of the Enlightenment, progress in science and technology does not constitute the grand solution to human problems. Rather, contemporary science risks becoming dehumanized and separate from real life which could pose social and political dangers, as envisaged by Rousseau. A ‘more natural science’ needs to do justice to ‘life as lived’ and, second, offer a richer account of ‘our animality [and] the human difference’. Emulating Aristotle, the author states that the ‘ethically excellent human being acts for the sake of the noble, for the sake of the beautiful’ whilst always being prudent. In the search for our humanity, the works of ‘countless generations of past seekers’ will provide unparalleled insight. This ought to remind us that we ‘owe a comparable gift’ to the generations following us.

© National Affairs (Washington, DC)