Thomas More Institute

Category Archives: Conscience

Published on
23 January 2012

Violations of Conscience in ‘The Land of the Free’

Posted in Abortion, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Human Life, Human Rights, Liberty, Moral Philosophy

From a guest blogger: Not for the first time has ‘the land of the free’ been a hopelessly wrongheaded epithet with which to label the United States of America. Many developed western nations find themselves embarrassed by histories of racial subjugation and segregation and they are rightly sorry about these records. But slavery is not […]

Published on
20 January 2012

Chivalry, Equality and the Costa Concordia

Posted in Conscience, Culture, Human Rights, Liberty, Marriage & Family, Moral Philosophy, Virtue

From a guest blogger: Some right-of-centre blogs have recently caught the eye. They concern chivalry and the unfortunate running aground of the Costa Concordia. ‘Women and children first used always to be the cry when all else was lost’, is the rough line taken by one commentator. At this point one can assume that whatever […]

Published on
24 June 2011

Gay Rights, Religion, and Cultural Relativism

Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Marriage & Family, Moral Philosophy, Religion, Same-Sex Marriage

Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has given a revealing interview to The Sunday Telegraph on the place of religious belief in Britain today. Despite being billed as ‘a wide-ranging intervention into the growing debate on the place of religion in modern society’, and in spite of starting by making […]

Published on
13 June 2011

The Williams Intervention and the Role of Religion in the Public Square

Posted in Big Society, British Politics, Christianity, Conscience, Ethics in the Media, Religion

As a Catholic and an Englishman I have never quite understood the enthusiasm of some of my European co-religionists for the idea that there must be strict separation between state and Church, and have often thought that the amusement to be derived from watching indignant Frenchmen flail their arms around indignantly about Bishops sitting in […]

Published on
27 May 2011

The Wasteland of Legal Highs

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Freedom, Human Rights, Liberty, Virtue

From a guest blogger: ‘What shall we do to-morrow? What shall we ever do?’ – T. S. Eliot If a substance were proved to be edible, legal, and productive of no physical or mental effects beyond an extremely pleasurable but incapacitating intoxication, would it be reasonable to say that there were any moral problems in […]

Published on
28 March 2011

Christianity, the Crucifix, and European Values

Posted in Christianity, Conscience, Education, Europe, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary

It was with surprise that many people heard last week of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), by a majority of 15-2, to overturn its own much-criticised decision in 2009 to forbid the display of crucifixes in Italian schoolrooms. Perhaps it would be kinder not to point out to the hapless […]

Published on
14 March 2011

After Euthanasia: Will Our Heroes Still be Heroic?

Posted in Conscience, Euthanasia, Human Life, Human Rights, Moral Philosophy

From a guest blogger: A sculpture inside the European Parliament in Brussels is said to represent the interconnectedness of all people. Life in particular is a myriad of interconnected events, ideas and of course people. It has been even been said that a baby throwing a rattle out of its pram affects the farthest star […]

Published on
10 March 2011

Banning the Burka

Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Europe, Islam, Liberty, Public Policy, Religion

Guidelines have now been published for the implementation of France’s much-publicised ban on the wearing of full face-coverings in public places, which will come into force next month. The Guardian reports that – with more than a slight reminder of Communist Vietnam – women caught wearing the burka will be ‘given a citizenship class to […]