Free Will: Does it Exist? Does it Matter? (21)
Is free will just an illusion? Determinism implies that human beings have no real choices. If so, then moral philosophy and ethics have no basis. Here are excerpts from a debate between a theist (Dr. Dennis Sullivan, Cedarville University) and an atheist (Dr. William Provine, Cornell University). Sources: Robert Kane: A Contemporary Introduction to Free [...]
The End of an Era
Sometimes it takes a person from outside our society to be its most honest critic. On August 3, 2008, one such voice became silent. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn died at the age of 89 of a heart ailment. This once unknown Russian high school teacher published his first book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, [...]
Who Am I?
In our ongoing academic debates over reproductive technologies, it is perhaps all too easy to forget the real issue: we are talking about how we treat human persons, created in God’s image, who have incalculable worth. Sometimes it is good to step back and put a face on the special children whose lives are in [...]
What About the Soul? (11)
The CedarEthics podcast for November, 2007 is a discussion of the soul, and how this impacts our understanding of human personhood. We look back at Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, and we examine the history of the concept. We also look at the soul in Scripture. Finally, we consider a beautiful engraving by William Blake, to illustrate [...]
Only One Child May Live
Steven Mosher paints a horrifying picture of the grim reality of the “One Child” policy in China. As a U.S. State Department representative in Guangdong Province in 1980, Mosher witnessed first-hand the forced abortions of women who committed the “crime” of becoming pregnant for the second time. Since then, Mosher has become president of the [...]
What Makes a Body Somebody? (9)
Today’s podcast continues our series on human personhood, this time delving into philosophy. We examine two competing views on human personhood, and we see why persons are not “piles of parts” like cars. The Conception View of Personhood: A Review Abortion, Bioethics and Personhood Theme Music: Gli Uccelli (The Birds), Part I. Prelude (Allegro moderato), [...]
Personhood: The View From the Womb (8)
Today’s podcast continues our series on human personhood, this time looking into the womb, and what Scripture has to say about human value there. Our news item comes from the world of nanotechnology, and we look at some of the ethics. The Conception View of Personhood: A Review Nanotechnology Risks – The Real Issues Theme [...]
Breaking News: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Upheld
By a narrow 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a federal law banning the late-term abortion procedure called ‘intact dilation and extraction,’ better-known by the label ‘partial-birth abortion.’ This is a major victory for the pro-life cause. Partial-birth abortion (as we have discussed in an earlier post), has been called by one author [...]
Whither Human Dignity?
As anyone who hasn’t been living on the planet Mars recently must surely know, there was a big furor last week over remarks by veteran broadcaster Don Imus. His injudicious use of racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team got him fired from his job. His show, “Imus in the Morning,” [...]
What is a Person? (7)
Our April podcast begins a series on human personhood, and the idea that this begins at the moment of conception. We support this view by examining the image of God as taught in the pages of Genesis. Our news item this time is from the Vermont legislature, which recently voted down a measure to legalize [...]
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