What is the best way to communicate the truth about human dignity in the public square? Are secular terms to be preferred, since they are not easily and quickly dismissed by non-believers? Or are explicitly and purely secular arguments simply not up to snuff for demonstrating the sanctity of all human life? See the proceedings of the Human Life Review‘s recent symposium, “Truth-Telling in the Public Square.”
. . .while all of the nine contributors to “Truth-Telling in the Public Square” agree on the inviolability of human life, each comes at the question of how best to argue for it in the public square from their own unique, and engaging, angle. Some come down on the side of the secular, some the sacred, and some think each argument makes sense . . . to a point. Some question whether one can persuade through argument at all.
. . . the reader follows the twists and turns of a fascinating discussion which reflects the richness of our Western, Judeo-Christian culture. Contributors look to, for example, ancient Greece (Hippocrates, Euclid), the Talmud, the Gospel and papal encyclicals, to natural law, and to American history and the abolitionist movement. Remarkably, you may come away agreeing with both Blackburn and Smith.
Among the contributers were Timothy Cardinal Dolan, and our magazine’s very own David Mills and Rusty Reno. Their articles can be found by visiting the Human Life Review homepage and scrolling down.
June 14th, 2012 | 6:39 pm
Are secular terms to be preferred, since they are not easily and quickly dismissed by non-believers? Or are explicitly and purely secular arguments simply not up snuff for demonstrating the sanctity of all human life?
If an argument is only true if you share a certain religious faith, then that argument does not apply to those who do not share that religious faith.
You have the right to argue for your right to believe in a thing, but if you want to argue that something is true (or important or whatever), you need to prove that it is true whether or not you are a religious believer.
Human dignity is too important for it to be something that only applies to religious people.
By the way, it says “in the eight commentaries that follow”, but it was not clear to me how to access the commentaries themselves (even after I turned off NoScript, I saw neither the commentaries nor links that might lead to them). Is this a subscriber-only thing?
June 14th, 2012 | 6:51 pm
If I go to the second link, I see three essays that might be part of the symposium?
Sorry to be so stupid, but are there eight or are the others just not up yet?
June 15th, 2012 | 4:18 am
[...] Tell It Like It Is, about how to communicate the dignity of life in the public square. [...]
June 15th, 2012 | 9:37 am
The rest of the articles in the symposium are on the next page of the site. Scroll down to the bottom and hit “next.” (And there are more on page 3.)
June 18th, 2012 | 1:02 am
[...] To Use Secular or Religious Terms? – Fr. Sebastian White OP, First Things/First Thoughts [...]
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