Free Republic

Despite what headlines often suggest, when it comes to tackling controversial issues on college campuses, the biggest challenge isn’t constraints on academic freedom. It’s not restrictions placed on free speech, high levels of self-censorship, or even a lack of civil discourse. To be clear, each of these is a genuine problem, but they share a root cause that we tend to ignore. Failing to understand this point will continue to stand in the way of any path to rebuilding trust in higher education. The shared root cause I’m referring to is something I call the Certainty Trap. And the easiest...

August 6th marked the 60th anniversary of America’s use of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. While some still argue that President Truman’s decision to use the A-bomb was “controversial,” they are afflicted with the scourge of our time, the loss of a sense of moral proportion and certainty. Unfortunately, those with relativistic morals will lead us to see the day when nuclear weapons are used again – this time to end once and for all the barbaric savagery of Islamism. Green Left Weekly (GLW) calls the U.S. putting a swift end to WWII – using atomic...

vanity

NECESSITARIANS. The doctrine of necessity regards the origin of human actions, and the specific mode of the divine government; and it seems to be the immediate result of the materiality of man; for mechanism is the undoubted consequence of materialism. Hence all materialists are of course necessitarians; but it does not follow that all necessitarians are or must be materialists. Whatever is done by a cause or power that is irresistible, is by necessity; in which sense this term is opposed to freedom. Man is, therefore, a necessary agent, if all his actions be so determined by the causes preceding...

Proof An Intentionally Untechnical Essay No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. ---Henry David Thoreau Sometimes, as scientists and philosophers, we tend to become a bit pedantic in our use of certain words, especially those we are particularly fond of. One of those words is proof. Ever since the philosophies of Hume and Kant undermined the foundations of knowledge, there has been a steady disintegration of confidence in all sources of knowledge, but especially in the sciences. It is not at all uncommon today to hear scientists say things like, "nothing is ever...