Academia & Ecclesia

I am annoyed by the recent town hall meetings with some U.S. senators and representatives. With angry citizens who are clearly misinformed by the conservative media and conservative politicians, rational discourses regarding Obama’s health care reform bill seem impossible. How can one have a rational discourse with anyone who is overwhelmed by his or her irrational impulses, in addition to deeply held false beliefs? They are misinformed considering that their claims are drawn from fallacious inferences (e.g. slippery slope, red herring, straw man, ad hominem, etc.). They are moved by their fears, prejudices, paranoia, insecurities, false assumptions, etc. Of course, conservative media (like Fox News) and conservative politicians (like Sarah Palin) are responsible for fanning the flame with fallacious, sensationalist, exaggerated, and caricatured claims about the proposed health care reform bill. Loud mouths with messages lacking in substance usually work in inspiring the masses. Substa...

The rights that the law protects are the ones that can be imposed on the citizens who are within the jurisdictions of such law. The determinations of what rights citizens must possess must not be guided by some religious or metaphysical principles, since such principles are usually difficult to conclusively, universally or objectively justify. Rights must be determined as byproducts of social contracts that are eventually established in a community that promotes the sustainability of individual lives, fairly distributed individual liberties, and the common happiness of the general population. Generally, a citizen must have the right to do whatever he wants to do as long as he or she does not cause direct physical harm on another citizen or direct damages to privately or publicly owned properties. Considering that fetuses are not technically citizens (unless we arbitrarily include them), the mother’s right to have an abortion must qualify within the scope of the legally protectable righ...