Mo' Dernity, Mo' Problems

There's a Bedroom in my Living Room

I came home on Wednesday night to find a new wall in my living room. Apparently the landlord and his brother are adding another room to the basement appartment, probably with the idea that a 4 BR is more profitable than a 3 BR.

Inspiring.

Looking for something besides Iggy Pop to listen to on your MP3 Player?

I've tried listening to a few of top rated podcasts, but found them all pretty dull. Instead, I would recommend the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin audio recordings of the Bible available here. Actually, I've only tried the Latin ones.

I also found out about Libri Vox, where you can download audio recordings of books and short stories for free. I've listened to a few so far, and would recommend "The Duplicity of Hargraves" by O. Henry... it's one of the stories in the first short story collection. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Black Cat" was trite, but there was one part that I want to quote here:

Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart --one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?

It seems like this understanding goes against the Church's understanding of sin. Take a look at this, from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

A pure or entire privation of good could occur in a moral act only on the supposition that the will could incline to evil as such for an object. This is impossible because evil as such is not contained within the scope of the adequate object of the will, which is good. The sinner's intention terminates at some object in which there is a participation of God's goodness, and this object is directly intended by him.

Seems like the character in Poe's story disagrees with Church's teaching. But what do you expect from a guy who splits open his wife's head with an axe?

How to seduce the King of France

Another clip from a friend's blog:

As far as I can tell, however, atheists and theists are equally entitled to believe in moral imperatives, because in both cases the argument should come down to the same premise: it is a fulfillment of man's nature (or "telos") to be moral.

Athiests look at things which are ordered and say, "No, this isn't a sign of God's handiwork, it's spontaneous evolution, or it's chance." Evolution gives a compelling account of why organisms have developed behaviors and traits which allow then to pass on their genetic code. Evolutionary theory may be able to explain altruism - the person who helps others is more likely to receive help when they need it. However, evolutionary theory is also likely to show that there are cases where immoral actions, like theft and murder, can be adaptive. If I can't get enough food any other way, stealing might allow me to survive and reproduce. If human telos is the result of evolution alone, I would expect that human telos would include some things that we consider moral, but others that we'd consider immoral. Sometimes the propegation of our genes may be served by moral behavior, but other times immoral behavior might be more effective.