J. Budziszewski on Agnosticism

"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. In the end, agnosticism is an illogical position to hold to."

— J. Budziszewski
Quoted in Ron Rhodes, Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics & Skeptics, p. 25. 

Book Review: On the Meaning of Sex by J. Budziszewski

J. Budziszewski, author of Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, What We Can’t Not Know, and The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction, takes on one of the most important, yet most confused issues of our culture: sex. We live in a culture in which sex is inescapably everywhere. From innuendos to full blown ads, it’s hard to not see or hear something sexual. Worst of all is the fact that more and more people seem to misunderstand the real meaning and purpose of sex as they engage in sex for mere fun or hook up overnight to forget about problems with the boyfriend/girlfriend. Is the purpose of sex merely pleasure? Or is it something else? In his powerful and timely book On the Meaning of Sex, Budziszewski explores not only the meaning of sex, but he investigates human nature, masculinity, femininity, and the ultimate transcending power of sex.

The first chapter title is taken from a discussion Budziszewski had with one of his students who remarked that “sex doesn’t have to always mean something” (Budziszewski’s emphasis 2). In other words, Budziszewski takes his student’s statement to mean that one could “separate our meaning for sex from the meaning for sex” (6). But if this is the case, then, according to Budziszewski, there cannot be any meaning to anything since we can just arbitrarily assign and separate meanings. “Language,” as Budziszewski puts it, “would be pointless” (7). Another issue is that sex is an intrinsic part of our human nature and we’re only free to the extent that we fulfill our nature. It’s not something that we can just throw away.

Book Review: Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law by J. Budziszewski

How should we approach the question of the nature and limit of government? Should the government enforce morality? And how does the theory of natural law tie in with these questions? In his book Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, J. Budziszewski takes readers through the major players in the fields of philosophy and ethics, and he triumphantly demonstrates how natural law helps us in answering our modern political and ethical questions.


This book is divided into five units in which Budziszewski devotes the first four units to Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill, respectively. The last unit is spent defending a Christian view of natural law and how recent thinkers have taken and applied the natural law tradition to contemporary issues.

J. Budziszewski on the Meaning of Morality

"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
What We Can't Not Know (Kindle Locations 384-387). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition. 

J. Budziszewski on the Moral Law MP3 Audio from CrossExamined

In this audio, Dr. J. Budziszewski is interviewed by Frank Turek on the CrossExamined radio show (podcast here) on the topic of the moral law. This includes a discussion of his newest book The Line Through The Heart, as well as discussion of the moral argument for the existence of God and more.

Full MP3 Audio here. (48 minutes)

Some of J. Budziszewski's books:
• The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction 
• Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law 
• Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students 
• Ask Me Anything 2: More Provocative Answers for College Students

Enjoy.