Friday, August 07, 2020

07. August 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: Reflections

My Thoughts

In reviewing an upcoming book of essays, I found this from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished; this is a real threat we face.” What immediately came to mind was an exercise in free association, exchanging “diversity” for “tolerance”: “In the name of diversity, diversity is being abolished.”  But then, other words seemed to fit just as well: truth, unity, morality, liberty, freedom, religion, faith, family, humanity, or whatever else it is that we hold most dear.

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Thursday, August 06, 2020

06. August 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: Reflections

My Thoughts

“Stupid is as stupid does” is a rather ingenious metaphor for the cupidity of those guilty of the foolish sin of absurdity. No one should be so rash as to presume they are stupid—it is a metaphor, not a measure of intelligence—though their actions often prove the point with unerring precision.

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Wednesday, August 05, 2020

05. August 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: Reflections

My Thoughts

Before my eyes there is a handsome window; outside that window stands a tree. It is a nice enough tree as most trees are generally well-behaved in the manner much becoming their kith and kin. It reminds me of Alfred Joyce Kilmer’s rhyme, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.” How true but now so long forgotten, except perhaps by foolish gods who would reject such verse as nonsense. Only God can make a tree; only God made you and me.

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Tuesday, August 04, 2020

04. August 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: Reflections

My Thoughts

C. S. Lewis, most familiar perhaps to the newer vintage for the Chronicles of Narnia, wrote often on theology and ethics. In 1949 he published an essay in 20th Century: An Australian Philosophy Quarterly, entitled “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment,” in which he argued for what he called a more “traditional” retributive theory over one that is solely directed to the rehabilitation of criminals and/or the deterrence of potential criminals. As Lewis argued, whereas many have dismissed the concept of retribution as nothing more than a veil for vengeance and barbarism, it turns out upon analysis that it is the removal of retribution from our notion of criminal justice that truly has a dehumanizing effect.

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Monday, August 03, 2020

03. August 2020 · Write a comment · Categories: Reflections

My Thoughts

There is much hue and cry these days over speech and freedom. In the right hand are those who speak of their right to speak freely without license while in the left are those who have nothing to say but the uncommon sense to wag their chattering tongues incessantly.

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