Query:

Because of the general duty to love our neighbors, I think that as a matter of public policy there must be rights to have certain goods -- in one sense of the term, "positive" rights.  What do you think?

A high school student asks:

Despite its flaws, I find humanity beautiful.  Sometimes I am so moved by the world around me that I think there must be a God.

The final volume of my Thomas Aquinas commentaries is now published by Cambridge University Press:  Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on the One God.  Reader reviews are just below, and if you scroll down, you can find a 20% off discount flyer.

Even a thick-skulled scholar can sometimes learn something new.

Some people, like the late John Rawls, say that we should set aside our religious and philosophical disagreements – our “comprehensive doctrines,” he calls them -- for the sake of practical agreement.  Others say that we can’t do that, and that it’s futile to try.

Can we, or can’t we?  It depends on what you mean.