NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, science, math, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

A moral evaluation of abortion

Roe v. Wade was recently overturned. I think this is an opportune time to organize and express my thoughts on abortion. This is my honest attempt to understand the issue. I chose to tackle a controversial topic, take an unpopular position, then moderate it with nuance. I have no illusions about any benefits or harms I may acquire as a result. My only defense is that this is what I really think, after a genuine attempt to get as close as I can to the truth.

Love your enemies

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "Love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken or we shall be plunged in to the dark abyss of annihilation.

On becoming a good person

I don't care much about the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. I mean, it's hard to care, given some perspective. It happened half a world away. The death count at the moment stands at 136, according to Wikipedia. That's nothing. The world's mortality rate is about 0.8% per year - or about 100 persons per […]

The lifetime of evil (part 2)

In the last post, I introduced the idea that an act - an evil act in particular - has a characteristic time-scale over which its consequences become clear. This time-scale can be determined from the mechanics of the act in question. I was initially inclined to call this the "half-life of evil", but that phrasing […]

The lifetime of evil (part 1)

The lifetime of an evil may be defined as: The time it takes for the negative consequences of an evil act to be made clearly manifest. Or, The time it takes for an evil practice, policy, or organization to be abolished. Or, The time it takes for the moral arc of the universe to bend, […]

History, moral progress, and moral perfection (part 2)

In the last post of this series, we examined the nature of social progress, and where that leaves us in the course of history. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. In the future, it will continue to bend towards perfection - and away from our current state. The […]

History, moral progress, and moral perfection (part 1)

Do you think that you live at the apex of moral history? That, after thousands of years bumbling and mistakes, your particular place (America, for instance) and time (June 2015) is when your society has finally gotten things right and achieved perfect virtue? Obviously you don't. I hope none of us are so foolish, provincial, […]

I am a sinner.

In any extended discussion about theology, there comes a time when one must talk about morality. It's important - moreso than any of the other oft-discussed topics on this blog - as it lies at the heart of the Gospel. That time is pretty much here for this blog: in the future, I will occasionally […]

Time spent on video games: worthwhile or wasteful?

Like many of you, I've been playing video games since my childhood. I grew up hearing that they were only a waste of time, but I always knew that was wrong. There are many games that I'm glad to have played - ones that taught me new things, gave me new experiences, and enriched my life. But on the other hand, video game addiction is clearly a real phenomena that many of us have observed or even experienced firsthand. Even without going to that extreme, I think we can all admit that we've wasted some time playing video games.

Make the most of your time and your life. Number your days.

Have you actually tried numbering your days, literally? It's a little depressing, but worth doing. Let's take 60 years as an optimistic average remaining life expectancy for the people reading this this post. This is actually a good estimate if you're around 20 years old. If you're older, naturally your remaining life expectancy will be correspondingly shorter. 60 years converts to roughly 21,900 days. Is this a large number?
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