Green Energy
The purpose of this post is not to polemicize the good Christians on this list.
However, people have always been confused when I say: history is fluid.
I am putting this forward as a way to demonstrate that. If you go through many of the comments people make, Thomas Aquinas is described as some kind of human rights revolutionary. While I do think that his exposition of natural law is the best we have ever seen, the fact is, that he has views that are very unsavory to the modern world. He thinks women are deficient and apostates and heretics should be put to death. Yet, in spite of his uttering such statements, we think of him as a great champion of rationality. This is a clear case of history being fluid.
By the way, if you don't know how to read Aquinas, here is how. There will be three 'objections.' These are not his position. Then there will be an "I answer" section. This *is* his position. Then there will be a 'reply to the objections.' This is generally accepted as his position, although I think there are differing interpretations to this.
Women
Apostates and Heretics
In short, please recognize that history is in fact fluid and how it is described later in time is as important as what *actually* happened.
By the way, should the secular-humanists on this list say: well, we always knew that *all* religion was bad, I can dig up plenty of unsavory things about Mr. Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer -- whom we have turned into secular-saints in spite of their horrifying personal character.
- It's The "crime", Not The Punishment, That Makes Sharia Evil
This post is from 2014. I am reposting it because I think it is a message that needs to be conveyed over and over. People usually focus on the barbarity of the punishment. And it is horrific. But it is the "crime" the punishment is for that is the real...
- Just For The Record, I Believe Gates Of Vienna, Fjordman, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, And Even That Fruitcake Charles Johnson Are Blameless In The Charge That Their "anti-islam" Writings Were The Cause Of Breivik's Choice To Murder People
So, fuck anyone who would make such a dumb, fucking assertion. The same people will not blame Islam for coming right out and calling for the stoning to death of Apostates, Gays, and Adulterers. The same people would not blame Islam for the enslavement...
- Sweden: Muslim Man Wins Right To Show Common Indecency To Women
Muslims have the right to act like assholes in Western lands. It's their right to treat women as second-class citizens. It's their right to call for death to the Infidels. It's their right to call for the death penalty for gays, apostates...
- Oliver Stone And Ahmadinejad And Father Khalil Samir On Conversion From Islam
On the first subject, Ahmadinejad rejected some weeks ago the possibility of collaborating with Oliver Stone in the new film that the latter is going to do about him. And I say, is because Ahmadinejad has accepted this same week. It's probable than...
- Christopher Hitchens Almost Gets It
Last Monday, the 18th, I caught the last few minutes of a Claremont Institute forum “Five Years After September 11,” as part of their Constitution Day events, which was shown on CSPAN. The panel was made up of: Mark Helprin, Christopher Hitchens,...
Green Energy
Thomas Aquinas on Women, Apostates, Heretics
The purpose of this post is not to polemicize the good Christians on this list.
However, people have always been confused when I say: history is fluid.
I am putting this forward as a way to demonstrate that. If you go through many of the comments people make, Thomas Aquinas is described as some kind of human rights revolutionary. While I do think that his exposition of natural law is the best we have ever seen, the fact is, that he has views that are very unsavory to the modern world. He thinks women are deficient and apostates and heretics should be put to death. Yet, in spite of his uttering such statements, we think of him as a great champion of rationality. This is a clear case of history being fluid.
By the way, if you don't know how to read Aquinas, here is how. There will be three 'objections.' These are not his position. Then there will be an "I answer" section. This *is* his position. Then there will be a 'reply to the objections.' This is generally accepted as his position, although I think there are differing interpretations to this.
Women
Reply to Objection 1. As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence; such as that of a south wind, which is moist, as the Philosopher observes (De Gener. Animal. iv, 2).
Apostates and Heretics
I answer that, With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.
In short, please recognize that history is in fact fluid and how it is described later in time is as important as what *actually* happened.
By the way, should the secular-humanists on this list say: well, we always knew that *all* religion was bad, I can dig up plenty of unsavory things about Mr. Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer -- whom we have turned into secular-saints in spite of their horrifying personal character.
- It's The "crime", Not The Punishment, That Makes Sharia Evil
This post is from 2014. I am reposting it because I think it is a message that needs to be conveyed over and over. People usually focus on the barbarity of the punishment. And it is horrific. But it is the "crime" the punishment is for that is the real...
- Just For The Record, I Believe Gates Of Vienna, Fjordman, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, And Even That Fruitcake Charles Johnson Are Blameless In The Charge That Their "anti-islam" Writings Were The Cause Of Breivik's Choice To Murder People
So, fuck anyone who would make such a dumb, fucking assertion. The same people will not blame Islam for coming right out and calling for the stoning to death of Apostates, Gays, and Adulterers. The same people would not blame Islam for the enslavement...
- Sweden: Muslim Man Wins Right To Show Common Indecency To Women
Muslims have the right to act like assholes in Western lands. It's their right to treat women as second-class citizens. It's their right to call for death to the Infidels. It's their right to call for the death penalty for gays, apostates...
- Oliver Stone And Ahmadinejad And Father Khalil Samir On Conversion From Islam
On the first subject, Ahmadinejad rejected some weeks ago the possibility of collaborating with Oliver Stone in the new film that the latter is going to do about him. And I say, is because Ahmadinejad has accepted this same week. It's probable than...
- Christopher Hitchens Almost Gets It
Last Monday, the 18th, I caught the last few minutes of a Claremont Institute forum “Five Years After September 11,” as part of their Constitution Day events, which was shown on CSPAN. The panel was made up of: Mark Helprin, Christopher Hitchens,...