A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Caroline Aiken Koster, A Summer Break From American Disunity, illustrated a widespread confusion about what’s wrong with us these days. It was a touching essay, and I am all for unity, but I think a mild demurral is needed.
This is not a parody. I wish it were.
I had been more than half-expecting at least one attempt on Mr. Trump’s life, but I would have greatly preferred to be wrong. My first reaction to the shooting has been sorrow. My second has been prayer.
Whenever a moral issue is raised, the reflex of many people is to spout, “Who is to say what is right or wrong?”
This is the wrong question. The right question isn’t “Who is to say?” but “How can we find out?”
The former question takes for granted that there is no way to find out. This ignores centuries upon centuries of moral inquiry.
Pro-abortion people often say the unborn baby can’t be protected just because we don’t know he is a baby. Who is to say?
But in the first place, we do know that he is a baby. He is an immature member of the same species as ourselves, possessing all the potentiality for further development that a born baby has.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press. Expected publication date: October 2024
Subjects: Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Religion, Philosophy