Category Archives: Religion
WASHINGTON, DC (JV) – In a landmark vote, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill today that would create a Christian church regulated by the federal government, with a clergy composed of presidential appointees. “This is a great day in the histroy of America,” President George Bush said after the bill’s passage. “For the first time in millennia, Americans will be able to worship the creator of their choices, without having to tolerate the Islamic and the atheistic heathen.” … Continue reading
“Killing to Acquire and Secure Power, for Dummies” would be an apt subtitle for Niccolo Machiavelli’s book The Prince. Within this work, Machiavelli advocates the unrestrained pursuit of power as its own end, without allowing such paltry things as ethics to interfere. If massacring a slew of people will help one get power, one should by all means do it, according to Machiavelli. These advocacies of violence for one’s own selfish ends are not Machiavelli’s only breaks with the teachings … Continue reading
“I profess myself a Mazda-worshipper, a Zoroastrian, having vowed it and professed it. I pledge myself to the well-thought thought, I pledge myself to the well-spoken word, [and] I pledge myself to the well-done action.”1 This oath to believe in God and act according to his principles comes from Zoroastrian scripture, a representative of the millennia-old literature of Persia. Despite its age, scholars have not examined Persian literature to any great degree. Many of its few extant remains lay spread … Continue reading
Known as the “Great Communicator,” United States President Ronald Reagan used plain speaking and affecting homilies to connect with his audiences, making them more willing to embrace his point of view. Reagan’s success as a persuasive orator ingratiated him with his allies, who appreciated his ability to win support for their cause, and infuriated his enemies, who could not understand how a man, with what they considered deficient ideas, could achieve the popular support Reagan did for his agenda. Thirteen … Continue reading
Dec. 31, 2011, edit: How amazing the effect the passing of a decade can have on one’s perspective. While I still stand by the thesis we are not in a “clash of civilizations” with the Muslim world, I of course must vacate the propositions that American interventions have been warmly greeted in targeted countries. And I believe American foreign interventionism clearly does inspire loathing of the United States that sometimes ignites terrorist ambitions; I would strongly dismiss the Bush explanation were … Continue reading
Object of discussion: Barthelme, Donald. “A City of Churches.” The Best American Short Stories. Ed. John Updike. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000. 503-506. Prester is a town where everyone follows the same philosophy and lives the same way. The town’s residents are not individuals with their own distinct identities, but units comprising a ubiquitous and soulless collective. Surprisingly, Prester is not a city in the old Soviet Union; instead, it is the setting of Donald Barthelme’s “A City of … Continue reading
The most common definition of morality is knowledge of right and wrong. People use morality to justify their actions and decisions. Some individuals also try to impress their own morality upon other people in the belief that standards of right and wrong are the same for everyone. In her essay “On Morality,” Joan Didion objects to such thinking, saying that each person can have a different conception of morality. To illustrate her point, Didion first uses the examples of Klaus … Continue reading
