The “problem of evil,” even if imprecisely named, remains the most powerful intellectual impediment to belief in God. The world contains extraordinary beauty, joy, and order—and yet also deep suffering. How can these coexist if there is an all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing God? This question is not a modern discovery. It already stands at the centreContinue reading “Theodicy as Tragedy or Evil?”
Category Archives: SocComm
Ridings & Parties
One need not always write with broad appeal in mind, but any Canadian will know how limiting it can be to speak of problems that seem particular to the northernmost reaches of the Americas. Still, as a student of Canadian political institutions and history, I cannot help but feel the task of clarifying our ownContinue reading “Ridings & Parties”
Two Anecdotes About Family
When at the hospital for the birth of our son, I remember being unsettled by the fact that much of the medical staff kept referring to me as my wife’s “birthing partner.” This label struck me as deflating the stakes and investment I had (and have) in both my wife and child, and I likelyContinue reading “Two Anecdotes About Family”
Misunderstanding Hypocrisy
Suggesting that a critical concern for our cultural moment is about understanding the nature of ‘hypocrisy’ may appear to be a real misstep. We have pressing issues facing the world from a myriad of directions, and adjudicating who the hypocrites are seems to be a completely ancillary concern. I would contend, however, that properly perceivingContinue reading “Misunderstanding Hypocrisy”
Abortion & Analogy
In 1971, Judith Jarvis Thomson published an essay entitled, “A Defense of Abortion.” Therein, she attempts an argument that assumes human life begins at conception (despite her personal rejection of this claim) so as to take on the most ‘extreme’ position that is used by many ‘pro-life’ advocates. This ‘extreme’ view argues that murdering aContinue reading “Abortion & Analogy”
Disposed to Conserve
For Geoff In a culture so deeply saturated with governmental idioms and ideological jargon, we have lamentably allowed a term of great importance to fall into disrepair in our discourse and thought: conservative. This word surely has salient meanings that are well outside the realm of governance and party ideology, though—in my experience—people tend toContinue reading “Disposed to Conserve”
Out of the Mouths of Babes
For A. J. S. In his Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo articulates his well-known though questionable understanding of babies: he attributes to them a sinfulness and malice that has caused many readers to accuse the African Bishop of lacking compassion and sensitivity for human infancy. A friend of mine has, however, tried to persuade meContinue reading “Out of the Mouths of Babes”
Friendship and Its Contexts
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the nature of friendship and its profound (and perhaps near primary) importance in a fulfilling human life. This claim in itself could and has been the subject of much discourse, but his development of this topic provides many other ideas that are worth pursuing in their own right. OneContinue reading “Friendship and Its Contexts”
On Being For & Against the Idealization of the Past
Recent developments in the realm of Artificial Intelligence tend to make me a bit apprehensive, but this hardly means that I simply avoid such innovations. Of late, this has led me to play around a little with the ChatGPT Open AI system. The program often provides decent overviews of nearly any topic and can provideContinue reading “On Being For & Against the Idealization of the Past”
Social Statistics & Moral Inferences
Last week, I wrote about the problem of understanding what the social sciences provide. My intention was to theorize the thinking involved in social science research and reflect on what this means for its outputs. While somewhat critical, my overall position is not that the social sciences are vapid but merely misunderstood – people misinterpretContinue reading “Social Statistics & Moral Inferences”
Hoping for Clarity 