Three Links Wednesday (vol. V)

[Opening Comments]

--I--

There are facts, there are theories, and there are misunderstandings.

"A fact is something observed: falling bodies.  A theory is a story we tell ourselves which makes sense out of those facts: gravitation.  So that whereas a fact is neither true nor false, a theory, being a proposition about some facts, can be true.  Specifically, "true to the facts."  While bodies will always fall in the same way, the theories that explain them may vary.  Gravity, as such, is not a fact.  (Newton was acutely aware of this.)  Simil atque, evolution is observable fact: species do come into existence and pass out of existence and may change over time.  Natural selection is a theory that tries to explain those facts."

--II--

If you could time travel, would you abort Hitler before he was born? Professor Mike Adams offers an argument for "no.":

That is because aborting Hitler would not have prevented the Holocaust. It would have justified it. The killing of millions of innocents does not begin with the killing of one innocent. It begins with the idea that in the larger scheme of things it is permissible to kill one innocent person....

Ideas have consequences. And so do exceptions. One of the consequences of embracing an evil exception is that it hardens our hearts and clouds our thinking in advance of our consideration of other exceptions. Eventually we come to a point where we cannot imagine life without that initial exception.

It is fitting that it all began in Mississippi. We have a legacy of executing innocents by denying their personhood. It happened with slavery. It happened again with abortion. Now we have learned to justify our own Holocaust. We didn’t need Hitler after all.

 That is to say, we cannot do evil so that good may result.

--III--

My friend Mr Nathanael Blake sounds off on the Obama Administration's latest attack on religious liberty. Today they come for me and my fellow Catholics, tomorrow it may be Mr Blake and his fellow Protestants. But of course, being not only a self-interested guy, Mr Blake notes that this is an issue which Protestants should heed regardless of whether the next blow will fall on them specifically, since we are all in the end brother Christians. On a related note, Mr Frank Weathers has created an online whitehouse.gov petition which you can sign. It's a small step, and should not be the full extent of your activities in opposing this attack on religious liberties; but it is a step nonetheless.

--Bonus--

From the files of "college is overrated": Miss Katie Kieffer has an (old) post on the subject. Education is not what drives an economy; entrepreneurship and the willingness to work hard (whether physically, mentally, or whatever) is. It's a tragic truth that a great many people are going to college to get a degree that they don't need which will ultimately enable them to work in a career which they don't want--and at. an absolutely exorbitant price (one which is much higher even after inflation than, say, the last generation of people suffered). All of which does more and more to convince me that I should ensure that my future children learn a trade before attending to college; they will then be free to go to college for the pursuit of an education, and not merely a degree. In a similar vein, while I don't usually agree with much of what is printed on the Daily Texan editorial pages, their Tuesday editorial concerning the opening of another Law school in Texas (really, anywhere in the US) does give me something to agree with. We have far too many law school as-is, which is good for nobody.