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On the Trinity

One of the twelve principles of intellectual conduct that T. Edward Damer, a contemporary philosopher, has espoused is called the principle of charity. He discusses it in his brilliantly written textbook called Attacking Faulty Reasoning published by Wadsworth Cengage Learning. The principle of charity teaches us that we should comprehend and reformulate the opponent’s argument as honestly as they would like us to, and we should allow them to amend it in case they impugn its reformulation. Taking the principle of charity as our guiding principle, I intend to very briefly talk about the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christian conception of God. So, let's begin. The first and most important thing to be cleared in this regard is that Christianity is, or at least claims to be, a monotheistic religion. They don't believe in three gods. Just like Jews and Muslims, they believe in only One God. However, the nature of Christian God is diametrically different from their cousins. It...

Seeking Refuge

When the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was founded in 1950 in the wake of death and destruction wreaked by World War Two, it was expected to operate for three years and then be dissolved. Enter 2022, it’s still at work, with its need felt more than ever. Its role has over the years expanded and its Convention has been growing in its formulations, definitions and clauses. As the refugee crisis has risen dramatically over the past few decades, it’s essential that we have a clear understanding of different aspects and terms involved in the discourse surrounding it, including the number of people who are affected by this crisis, and what’s at stake. There are around 90 million people the world over who have been displaced from their own homeland. Among these 90 million people, 27.1 million are officially recorded as refugees and almost half of them are children. The detailed statistics regarding the refugee crisis can be had on the UNHCR website. We must be invariab...