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ONE_TRUTH

                                             June 30, 2008

In a few places, Chesterton
has Brown slip in phrases such
as "the one true morality",

                                             NATURAL_THING

Behind that mask of humility is
a monomaniacal claim to the one
true truth.

If Brown does not go off ranting about
the inherent evil of atheists and Moslems,
it's solely a matter of "good manners":            However, Brown is willing
in his heart he believes that no one can           to admit that not all
be moral without his one true morality.            scientists are crazed
                                                   axe-murderers -- this is
                                                   nice of him.
    True humility arises out of the
    knowledge that your own beliefs
    are just guesses without solid
    foundation, and one should step
    carefully about the claim of being
    in touch with the absolute.


Someone suggests that good
actions count more than good
beliefs, and he shrugs that off             By what standard can we
with a rhetorical question: how             judge an idea of the
can actions be good if they're              good except by the
founded on a misconception?                 consequences of actions
                                            based on that idea?
      And how does one ensure
      that one is not acting on                Note: *everyone* does this,
      a misconception?  If one                 including Chesterton, with
      is convinced that they                   his claim that his faith
      have a handle on The                     has positive social effects.
      Absolute when in fact they
      do not, is it likely that
      good actions will always
      ensue from that misconception?


      The "relativist" may very
      well be at risk of going off
      the rails into convenient
      self-invented "principles"
      that are little more than
      rationalizations.

      But the "absolutist" is haunted by
      the spirit of fanaticism.

      That polite facade is always at risk
      of breaking down into a new return
      to "fundamentals".


                   This series of stories
                   begins and ends with
                   tales in which Father      In the first, it's Flambeau,
                   Brown detects a sham       who he spots by his "bad
                   priest.                    theology" (an attack on Reason).
                                              In the last, the basis is some
                                              technical knowledge about the
                                              doctrines of different factions
                                              of the Church of England.


                       I don't believe there's a single story about
                       a genuine priest who is also a bad human being.

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