Tag Archives: Worldview

Conservative Economic and Political Resources

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liberty

Ideas on Liberty, Religion and Society

A friend recently asked me to put together some resources on the conservative economic and political worldview (especially from an evangelical Christian perspective), so that he could become better informed on this viewpoint. I decided to turn my research and information gathering into a blog post so that others might benefit from it as well. These are all resources that I have used, still use and/or tap into to stay informed on this general topic. You will notice that I shy away from the shrill, reactionary and negative approach of some “conservatives” in favor of a more thoughtful, engaging and reasoned approach.

This post will be updated as I gather more information. Please leave your comments below on additional recommendations!

Newsletters

Magazines

Books

Essays-Articles

  • “I, Pencil“ by Leonard E. Read - This short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central planner.
  • “Imago Dei and the Fall: The Implications of Two Christian Doctrines for Economics” - Lecture by Dr. PJ Hill, Professor of Economics at Wheaton College - My son Marshall saw Dr. Hill give this lecture in November 2009 at the American Enterprise Institute in DC. After reading this myself, it is a tremendously coherent argument for why free-markets are the best economic system, based on the foundational Christian beliefs about how God originally created humans and the reality of how we’ve fallen.
  • “The Problem with Conservatism” - J. Budziszewski
  • “The Problem with Liberalism” - J. Budziszewski
    • “I, Pencil” by Leonard E. Read
    This short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central plannerby Leonard E. ReThis short essay explains how the coordination needed to make a simple pencil is its own kind of miracle. Example of what society can do without a central planner.

Authors-Thinkers-Speakers-Economists

  • Dinesh D’Souza – Thinker, author, columnist – heard him speak at a Ravi Zacharias event
  • Marvin Olasky – the personal series describing his path from Communism to a conservative-Christian it a must read
  • Michael Novak – Theologian and Author
  • Thomas Sowell – African-American Economist, Professor, Author, Thinker
  • Chuck Colson – Breakpoint, Prison Fellowship, author of many great books on Christian faith and culture
  • Mark Steyn – Author and columnist, who also happens to be Canadian
  • Walter Williams – Professor of Economics at George Mason University
  • Milton Friedman – Nobel Prize-winner in Economics
  • Friedrich Hayek - advocate of Austrian Economics

Websites-Blogs

Organizations

Media

  • “John Adams” – HBO Mini-series
  • “Liberty, Rights and the American Founding“ – FEE Seminar on YouTube
  • WIND Radio 560 AM –  Chicago Talk Radio
  • “The Call of the Entrepreneur” – This video by the Acton Institute tells the story of 3 different entrepreneurs and demonstrates the true value that entrepreneurs create for society, weaving in aspects of Christianity. It gives the conservative view of businessmen and wealth, not as evil but as a beneficial part of society.

Voluntary Human Extinction

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Yesterday at lunch in the midst of our discussion, a guest mentioned an organization called “The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Their byline is “May we live long and die out.” You can visit their website at http://www.vhemt.org

Here is what the group explains and says about themselves:

VHEMT (pronounced vehement) is a movement not an organization. It’s a movement advanced by people who care about life on planet Earth. We’re not just a bunch of misanthropes and anti-social, Malthusian misfits, taking morbid delight whenever disaster strikes humans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Voluntary human extinction is the humanitarian alternative to human disasters.

We don’t carry on about how the human race has shown itself to be a greedy, amoral parasite on the once-healthy face of this planet. That type of negativity offers no solution to the inexorable horrors which human activity is causing.

Rather, The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth’s ecology.

As VHEMT Volunteers know, the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens… us.

Each time another one of us decides to not add another one of us to the burgeoning billions already squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through the gloom.

When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth’s biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Nature’s “experiments” have done throughout the eons.

It’s going to take all of us going.

Visualize Voluntary Human Extinction

Visualize Voluntary Human Extinction

Wow! What could be a clearer example of the logical extension and consequences of a mechanistic, Darwinian evolutionary worldview. At least VHEMT is being consistent with their presuppositions. I just can’t figure out on what grounds they think we should do this voluntarily and gradually. I mean, why not just devise a plan by which to wipe out all humans in one fell swoop? Why waste the time to do it gradually? Won’t it be better for the earth to get rid of us humans more quickly?