Blog posts
Reason vs. Faith
[This was published in the Chicago Tribune, November 2, 1998] In today’s industrial civilization, people recognize the difference between the secular and the religious. Even those who believe in the Bible, for example, would generally not proclaim Scripture to be science–any more than those who faithfully read their horoscopes would declare astrology to be part of
Man vs. Nature
[This was published in the Sacramento Bee, April 23, 1999] For the first time in American history, the government is ordering the destruction of a dam—for environmental reasons. This July, Edwards Dam, a small hydroelectric facility on the Kennebec River in Augusta, Maine, will be torn down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Its crime?
The Racism of “Diversity”
[This was published in the Providence Journal, Feb. 11, 2003; the Hartford Courant, March 26, 2003; the Detroit Free Press, March 28, 2003; and the Orange County Register, December 19, 2003.] Texas A&M president Robert Gates should be praised for announcing that race will no longer be a factor when applications are considered, and that
Foreign Policy and Self-Interest
By Peter Schwartz [This was published in the Contra Costa Times, July 19, 2003; the Canberra Times, July 24, 2003; and the Charlotte Observer, July 25, 2003] Those who claim that the United States has a moral obligation to send troops on a “humanitarian” mission to Liberia have it exactly backward: our government has a
Faith and Force
By Peter Schwartz (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 6, 2005) America’s war on terrorism is being undercut—by the administration’s efforts to inject religion into politics. Our enemy in that war is the ideology of Islamic totalitarianism—an ideology which holds that one’s life is to be lived entirely in service to Allah, that the dictates of the mullahs
Moral Values Without Religion
By Peter Schwartz (Post-Tribune, IN, June 2, 2005) Does morality depend upon religion? Most people believe it does, which is a major reason behind the appeal of the religious right. People believe that without faith in a supernatural authority, we can have no moral values—no moral absolutes, no black-and-white distinctions, no firm demarcation between good