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J. Budziszewski Quotes

There are some forms of stupidity that one must be highly intelligent and educated to achieve.

There are some forms of stupidity that one must be highly intelligent and educated to achieve.

J. Budziszewski
Intelligent, Stupidity, Achieve
J. Budziszewski (2010). “The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man”, p.14, Wipf and Stock Publishers

Your worldview has to have the same shape that reality does.

J. Budziszewski
Reality, Doe, Shapes

As any sin passes through its stages from temptation, to toleration, to approval, its name is first euphemized, then avoided, then forgotten. A colleague tells me that some of his fellow legal scholars call child molestation "intergenerational intimacy": that's euphemism. A good-hearted editor tried to talk me out of using the term "sodomy": that's avoidance. My students don't know the word "fornication" at all: that's forgetfulness.

J. Budziszewski
Children, Editors, Names

The whole meaning of morality is a rule that we ought to obey whether we like it or not. If so, then the idea of creating a morality we like better is incoherent. Moreover, it would seem that until we had created our new morality, we would have no standard by which to criticize God. Since we have not yet created one, the standard by which we judge Him must be the very standard that He gave us. If it is good enough to judge Him by, then why do we need a new one?

J. Budziszewski
Ideas, Creating, Judging
J. Budziszewski (2011). “What We Can't Not Know: A Guide”, p.12, Ignatius Press

To say that we cannot know anything about God is to say something about God; it is to say that if there is a God, he is unknowable. But in that case, he is not entirely unknowable, for the agnostic certainly thinks that we can know one thing about him: That nothing else can be known about him.

J. Budziszewski
Thinking, If There Is A God, Agnostic

To be evil at all, Satan needs good things he can abuse, things like intelligence, power and will. Those good things come from God.

J. Budziszewski
Evil, Abuse, Needs
J. Budziszewski (2004). “How to Stay Christian in College”, Th1nk Books

Depraved conscience turns out to be as different from genuine ignorance as it is from honest recognition.

J. Budziszewski
Ignorance, Different, Recognition
J. Budziszewski (2010). “The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man”, p.15, Wipf and Stock Publishers

As to the latter point - that by having a child in America you are somehow starving a child in Bangladesh - remember that agricultural economics is not a zero-sum game. Farmers want to make a living, so as demand increases, so does production. Not only that, but agricultural productivity has increased so rapidly that in some countries the government pays farmers not to plant crops in an effort to keep food prices from dropping.

J. Budziszewski
Country, Zero, Children

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