On the Chilean Miners . . . and a 1949 Harvard Law Review Article

Check out this great post by Ashby Jones on the Wall Street Journal Blog.  It relates the Chilean miners (Praise God they have been rescued) to the Harvard Law Review article by Lon Fuller on the differing results obtained when Positive Law and Natural Law are applied to a case of trapped cave explorers (The Case of the Speluncean Explorers).  Fullers article is a classic and repays reading with many a thoughful moment.

NPR engages in battle of words on abortion

This is good article from Jeff Bercovici, media analyst for Finance Daily.  He notes that NPR (that is taxpayer supported National Public Radio) has changed its vocabulary when referring to the opposing sides of the abortion debate.  Previously, NPR called the sides what they call themselves, Pro-Life and Pro-Choice.  NPR has now decided that they will call the opposing sides supporters/opponents of abortion rights.   Of course, this is a charged term that colors Pro-Life voices as being against a right.  No mention of the Child's right to life.  The NPR memo is here.  As mentioned in a previous blog, our opponents often try to control the use of language to win the debate before it has started.  This is another example.  Do not let yourself fall into using their language to describe your position.  It is easy to do because the media will inundate you with "their" terminology.  Never hesitate to correct the language used in debate.  We are Pro-Life because the right to life is fundamental to any other rights.  Without it, there are no other rights.     

Predictions of Humanae Vitae

The Population Research Institute blogged this list of predictions from Pope Paul VI encycical Humanae Vitae:
1. Contraception would lead to conjugal infidelity.
2. Contraceptive practice would lead to a “general lowering of morality.”
3. Contraception would lead men to cease respecting woman in their totality and would cause them to treat women as “mere instruments of selfish enjoyment” rather than as cherished partners.
4. And finally, widespread acceptance of contraception by couples would lead to a massive imposition of contraception by unscrupulous governments.

You might wonder how Pope Paul VI could have been so precient as to predict these things with such accuracy.  It is simple.  He studied natural law.  Our Declaration of Independence speaks of the adherance to the "Law of Nature and of Nature's God."  The laws of nature cannot be violated without adverse consequence to individuals and to society.  The relationships of male and female and the regeneration of society have been ordered by nature in accordance with the natural means of human procreation.  Contraception discards the natural means of procreation and replaces it with an artifice.  The predictable result is the destruction of the normal relations between the sexes and of the bonds of society.  To reorder society we need to understand that liberty exists within law; "freedom" outside law is chaos.

Abortion Language in Health Care Bill

While supporters of health care reform claim that they are working to help the less fortunate, their actions belie their words.  They have steadfastly, and in many ways deceitfully, included language in the bill that would fund abortion and those who would promote abortions.  Health care supporters seek to destroy the most unfortunate of those among us; the unborn child at risk of being killed.  The plan includes a kind of tax on every person's healthcare plan that would then be used to fund abortion. 

Congressional supporters  claim that "federal" funds would not be used for abortion.  This is only partially true in that the accounting gimmick simply uses the insurance companies as a proxy for government support.  This principle that no one should be forced to support that which they find abhorrent is violated whether the funding is through the government directly or a payment forced by law.  The bill also includes funding for "Communty Health Centers" which is simply a code word for abortion providers.  This health care bill must be defeated. 

Potential of Life vid

Check out this vid promoting the March for Life in Spain. The vid is effective in showing the continuity of life from conception on. The vid shows life in the womb and the events that take place at certain weeks such as the heart beats, the hands are formed, and etc... then moves on to show how at 1,100 weeks individuals such as Mother Teresa have changed the world. This vid is beautifully done and includes English subtitles.

My only quibble is that it shows successful people are certain stages of life. It leaves out the potential for those who are almost certainly destined not to make achievements at that level, the severely handicapped, for example. Sarah Palin's son Trig in all likelihood will never achieve greatness or change the world in a spectacular way. However, he, too, deserves life and our support for children such as these are truly the least of us. They, too, change the world by their very presence.

The State is not a Source or Beginning of Ethics

Pope Benedict XVI told the Pontifical Academy for Life "History has shown how dangerous and deleterious a State that proceeds to make legislation on matters that touch the person and society can be, when it tries to be the source and beginning of ethics."

In a talk that addressed current bioethics issues such as embryonic stem cell research, the Pope noted that the human dignity, which is fundamental to all rights, is not "written by the hand of man, but... by God the Creator in the heart of man."


Indeed, natural law as posited by Aquinas shows that all law proceeds from God's law.  The state may create municipal or positive law to better order society but that law must reflect an understanding of God's law.  Positive law that violates God's law is null.  Our own Declaration of Independence sets forth this understanding as the basis for the American Revolution. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

In addition, international law upheld the same conception of law as our Declaration of Independence during the Nazi war crime trials.  German officers argued that they were simply following orders... following positive law.  It was held that this was insufficient to exonerate them.  We are all held to a higher power... to disobey laws that violate natural law.

Those who would tell us that our religious beliefs have no place in the political debate are not only wrong about the content of public discourse but also about the fundamental source of law, ethics, and public policy.  Of course, they know they are wrong and are only trying to win the debate without arguing the merits of their position. 

Pope Benedict and Equality

Check out this article on Pope Benedict and equality from Michael Miller of the Acton Institute.  In it he states "Radical equality now has become praiseworthy as something good in itself, separated from any question of truth, common sense, or even biological realities." 

Radical equality is based upon philosophical nominalism.  Nominalism posits that we can not "know" anything about reality.  Its best expression is Descarte's "I think, therefore I am."  The only thing that can be known is the self, and we can know precious little of that, only that we exist.  The outside world is unknowable.   All categories of "things" out in the world are artificial.  We really do not know what "rocks" are and all attempts to categorizes various similar phenomena (i.e. various types of rocks) as rocks are artifical constructs that we impose upon the world.  Thus we can not know "gender."  The concepts "male" and "female" are simply artifical constructs.  These social constructs are created by those in power.  Language is an instrument of power.  Critical Legal theory goes on to say that these constructs are used by the majority to subjugate and exploit the minority.  Further, since we ourselves have no knowable essence, we are simply the sum total of our experiences.  Since others are in charge of that experience, we are their victims; victims of social pressure and language.  Only by overthrowing the "male, female" constructs can the minority be free.  Fortunately, this is hogwash.

We can and do "know" things about the outside world.  Science has shown that there is a kind of dialog between the perceiving mind and the object being perceived.  Thus, before you thought, you were.  We are not simply the sum of our experiences.   We interact with our experiences, accept some, reject others.  If the nominalists were right, then all change would be impossible as everone would be bound by their experience.  Thus, another nominalist, Karl Marx, had to resort to the "vanguard" to lead his revolution.  The vanguard would be a group of people who had (magically) escaped the bonds of their social position.  When we deny reality, equality can only be enforced by state power.  All will be forced to hold the position of the minority, or, at least, act as though they held that belief.  Radical equality leads to oppression.  True equality requires an understanding of our nature and our standing equally before the state.