Thomas More Institute

for a more informed ethical engagement in public and professional life

As Ireland prepares to once again vote on the Lisbon Treaty in early October, the ‘culture wars’ reminiscent of the 1980s are re-emerging. Recently, Bishop Noel Treanor stated that a Catholic could vote ‘yes’ on the treaty in good conscience. However, other interest groups, such as Coír, disagree. Highlighting that the EU might force the country to liberalise its abortion laws, Coír is winning popularity for the no-side among voters who embrace Catholic morality. Coír’s message also resonates with other Irish voters, many of whom carry a deep and long-running suspicion of elites and foreign involvement.

Human Rights and the Unborn - Angela Shanahan

With the death of the unborn, language varies with the situation. If a child dies during pregnancy following maternal illness the media speak of  'the unborn child'. In contrast, an aborted baby is most often called 'the foetus'. Inconsistency arises from denying the child a legal right to live in promoting the mother's legal right to abort. The author argues this to be invalid as the right to live must be most basic. This is reflected in international law (Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Declaration of the Rights of the Child) despite attempts to deny it and national legislation. Pro-abortionists have successfully set up their own charters and changed the notion of natural rights into 'a plethora of non-rights'. The wide-ranging effects are particularly acute internationally in bodies like the UN and its Population Fund (UNFPA).

© Quadrant Magazine (Sydney)

Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop Nichols - Jonathan Wynne-Jones

Websites such as Facebook and MySpace encourage teenagers to view friendship as a "commodity" and are leading them to suicide, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has warned.

© The Telegraph (London)

Making Men Moral - Micah Watson

Scholars gathered at a conference earlier this year to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Robert P. George’s 1994 book, Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality, a work which encapsulated much of his thinking on constitutional law, philosophy of law, bioethics and natural law. Two main themes run throughout his work – the perfectionist principle and the reason principle. In the perfectionist principle, the necessity of religion and morality for human happiness is stressed, and ‘good’ is encouraged in society by the partnering of government and law with the institutions of religion, morality and knowledge. The reason principle holds that we can determine what that ‘good’ through careful deliberation and application of human reason.

In this short article, Micah Watson outlines the how the various speakers addressed the themes in George’s work and contributed to the ongoing discussion of how religion and reason can help us understand and promote the common good.

© ThePublicDiscourse.com

From Job to the Enlightenment - John Cottingham

A new book by Susan Neiman revisits the role of the transcendental in two ‘moral heavyweights’ of the Enlightenment, Kant and Hume, and explores how today’s political left can pursue a progressivist vision of justice and equality that goes beyond ‘crass materialism’. Her interpretation of the Biblical story of Job holds that the undeserved and terrible suffering we see in the world around us shows there is no moral order in the world and that we are to create it ourselves. In this she upholds Hume's idea that there are no ‘oughts’ to be derived from what ‘is’. John Cottingham finds much to commend in this departure from ‘contemporary militant secularism’, but questions the lasting basis of a ‘hope’ that does not acknowledge the ultimate goodness at the source of everything. Rather, he points to Kant’s assertion that hope in the ultimate triumph of goodness makes believing in God a moral necessity.

© Standpoint Magazine (London)

Why We Should Oppose Same Sex Marriage - David Novak

David Novak’s article summarises the content of a recent discussion he had with the philosopher Martha Nussbaum regarding the institution of marriage. His argument stems from the fact that since the state has inherited marriage as an institution from a pre-political tradition, it has no place in attempting to redefine the meaning of what marriage is. He draws on Nussbaum’s distinction between the private, or ‘expressive’, elements of marriage, (sexual relations, friendship and companionship, love, conversation, mutual responsibility), and the public aspects, (procreation and child-rearing). Since the state only has a valid interest in the public aspects of marriage – for replenishing its citizenry and ensuring national continuity – then it follows that marriage is inherently endorsed as a heterosexual union, since homosexual couples cannot naturally conceive children.

© ThePublicDiscourse.com

Catholic Adoption Agencies Lose Case - Neil Addison

Neil Addison comments on the recent Charity Tribunal decision that Catholic Adoption Agencies may not withhold children for adoption by same-sex couples. The outcome, he says, was dubious, but inevitable. Even had the Adoption Agencies won their case before the Tribunal, they would have effectively been prohibited from operating by the refusal of local authorities to deal with ‘directly discriminatory’ institutions. He suggests that an alternative approach would have been for the Adoption Agencies to openly align their objectives to Church teaching, as they could then have resisted the case on grounds of religious discrimination.

© ReligionLaw.co.uk

In Vino Veritas: I'll Drink to That - Roger Scruton

Binge drinking may look like a communal act, but it is an act of solitude, celebrating the self.

© Standpoint Magazine (London)

Silence, Please - Susan Hill

Silence is a rich soil in which many things flourish, but children are now rarely given the opportunity to benefit from it.

© Standpoint Magazine (London)