In a world of confusion, anti-reason and post-modernism, the Arizona Right to Life conference has been refreshing. Starting with LTI's Scott Klusendorf on Friday night, the conference began with practical philosophy: truth is not ice cream (i.s., not a personal preference) and human life is intrinsically (not instrumentally) valuable. Today (Sat.) my only disappointment is that I'm unable to attend all of the sessions featuring an exceptional line-up of speakers.
I'm presently listening to Dr. John Mark Reynolds talk on cultural engagement and epistemology. I was pleased when he highlighted the changing media and the opportunity for each individual to make a difference by simply blogging the truth - the news that they see.
Dr. Reynolds speaks authoritatively, clear, with reason, and in a rapid yet systematic fashion making it difficult to capture his message in a few sentences. One of his points that struck home with me is that the constant consumption of media and government schools has undermined reason leading his students to religious prejudice rather than reason.
That is, our culture is not epistemologically self-conscious. People do not know what they believe and why. Although philosophically and scientifically we are now more sure that a baby is a person we fail to act on that knowledge. Why do we wait for certainty? Because we have a bad "theory of knowledge." This is the fundamental pro-life problem.... Let's stop watching TV and start producing it.
I really wish I was recording the session for our readers. The session is giving me ideas.... more later.
Updates: paraphrasing Reynolds:
To begin with, we (Christians) must embrace objective truth and start thinking that beauty is more than my personal preference. What we need through blogging, youtube and other ways is to create a cultural malay for people to live in where roses are beautiful and ... where there is knowledge in religionMore on blogging - you can start a blog overnight, upload your music via Itunes, and report on intellectually bankrupt college classes.... the traditional media is failing and we have to think long-term.
AZRTL's John Jakubczyk writes:
This was a conference with some of the brightest minds in the country and they were more than happy to exhort the attendees into action . Then there was the letter from the president of the United States encouraging us to continue the fight to return protection of the children into the law. Finally the attendees were my reason for deeming the conference a success. There were many young adults who attended and they were all excited about making a difference.
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