"The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false."- Thomas Aquinas
Disregard for a moment all of the evidence from Paul Ryan's public record of his support for the teachings of Ayn Rand. Now, to placate the GOP base that is more than a bit squeamish of Ryan's record for supporting Rand's atheistic, dog-eat-dog worldview, the Vice Presidential candidate is saying he is a actually a big fan of the teachings of Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas.
This blog post does a superb job pointing out how Paul Ryan's political career has been defined by promoting policies in direct opposition to what Aquinas taught.
Village Voice Blog: Paul Ryan Is In Love With St. Thomas Aquinas; What Does This Mean?
For starters, some -- such as the Guardian's Giles Fraser -- have pointed out that it's kinda impossible to be a good Catholic and/or Christian and advocate economic policies that Jesus would outright abhor...I would add that its not just economics in which Paul Ryan and Thomas Aquinas are in complete disagreement. On the subject of science, the theologian from the 13th century had a very different and far more sophisticated perspective than the modern day, college graduate, career politician who is allegedly known for his astute intellect.
In his Summa Theologica -- which you should probably, like, read if you claim to be an Aquinas fan, considering it's his most well known work (WE ARE TALKING TO YOU PAUL RYAN!!!) -- the saint had a few things to say about economics, and none of them are very free market sounding.
The GOP is promoting an anti-science agenda on a number of fronts. Climate change, evolution, medical research are just a few scientific fields that the GOP has declared war against in their State and National platforms, their legislation and their rhetoric. All for the same reason, that scientific findings dispute their religious faith, and since their faith is supposed to be the most important thing in their lives, then science goes right under the bus.
The modern GOP is so far off the rails that they actually think they as a political party need to defend God in the laws, courts, schools, and media, lest the creator of heaven and earth suffer a mortal wound from the infidels who used the brains God gave them to make scientific discoveries.
Aquinas said that if faith flies in the face of facts, reason and science, then that faith becomes a mockery.
The GOP led by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan don't understand that very basic point and they are willingly making a mockery out of the entire conservative movement rather than try to educate their ignorant base of voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment