Hell is Real–and Just

Hell is Real–and Just

It’s recently been reported that in a meeting with his longtime atheist friend, the Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis denied the reality of hell and asserted that condemned souls “disappear”—that’s to say, they’re annihilated. The Vatican responded by...
Is Sex Okay As Long Nobody Gets Hurt?

Is Sex Okay As Long Nobody Gets Hurt?

In my article “The Moral Limits of Consent” I argued that the appeal to consent alone as a necessary condition for appropriate sexual behavior is not sufficient. The recent events involving accusations of sexual assault, harassment, and rape among Hollywood’s elite...
Testing the Causal Chain

Testing the Causal Chain

Last November, we looked at what some call the existential argument for God’s existence. One of its key premises is that whatever doesn’t have existence by nature must receive its existence from a cause outside itself (an “existential cause”—a cause that gives...
Why the Natural Law Still Matters

Why the Natural Law Still Matters

I recently gave a talk on relativism and its relation to sexual issues, and in conversation afterward a gentleman asserted that Catholics are fighting a losing battle by using natural law arguments to support certain moral positions. Because our culture is so...