Comments for A Dwindling Debate at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 10 out of 10 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:32:23 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1745 [More about] the New Criterion's excellent symposium on the "dictatorship of relativism". Will dialogue with secularists or relativists, while good at averting full-scale religious/atheistic war, result in much productivity other than a soft, socially-approved ecumenism that has lost its soul? I believe in dialogue, but if often seems that it is the religious that have to cede ground for a sanitized social ideal we can all agree on. - Tod W Thu, 14 May 2009 07:00:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1744 A wonderful contribution to the relativist vs.Christian tension can be found in the New Criterion (3-4 months ago) symposium on the "dictatorship of relativism". At the end, do we risk a watered down "ecumenism" in our dialogue with secularists? Furthermore, don't we have to wonder about the paradox of the secularists' or relativists' ardent defense of anything when their truth is ultimately vague, mushy, and inherently "relative"? Great discussion on an issue of infinite value! - Tod Worner Thu, 14 May 2009 06:59:05 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1735 Bob, You nailed it with this comment: "societies without religion are without hope... without children, and without a future". Pat Buchanan wrote a prescient book on this topic. Demography is destiny; for a nation, for a people. How can any patriot consent to aborting and contracepting our great nation into oblivion. The God-given Popes of the last two centuries have tried to teach & lead on this eternal truth. What are they teaching at Notre Dame? Let's go hear Obama! - Paul Arnold Mon, 11 May 2009 21:21:31 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1720 Thanks for your comments. One point. I wrote about this debate because there are some sincere secularists out there -- not very many, maybe , but they're there -- who see the same difficulties many of us see. They are the ones we can begin a dialogue with, as Benedict has with Marcello Pera and others. As the consequences of bad ideas become ever clearer, we need to be ready to talk, calmly, with some people who were wrong but better intentioned than the usual anti-Christians. They're allies. - Robert Royal Mon, 11 May 2009 10:13:35 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1719 The perfect retort to Mr. Pellicani's thesis is Richard John Neuhaus's analysis of Richard Rorty in "American Babylon." Devastating. The political manifestation of a society centered around self-realization is the dictatorship of relativism. As Pellicani truthfully acknowledged, religion, by proposing grand truths and moral commitments, gets in the way of me doing what I want to do. Therefore religious believers or those with non-subjective conceptions of reality must be politically silenced. - JD, Esq. Sun, 10 May 2009 19:46:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1718 The fact that "societies without religion are without hope & without children & without future" is self-evident to everyone but the deluded, such as Prof Pellicani. My father, who I very much loved, was just such a professor. Living in the pretend-world of academia, he came to believe in relativism with an absolute dogmaticism. Facts could never dissuade him. I have to ask, though, who sold the most books? I bet Pellicani did since the debate was in Italy... - gtb Sun, 10 May 2009 19:46:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1709 It is absurd to attempt to reject reason in favor of self-realization, since man is a rational creature and even his passions are under the control of his reason. Reason can never be subtracted out. If I decide I want to be a sexually "liberated" person, it's obvious that A) I have an understanding of the kind of person I want to be, which is an act of the reason, and B) I have made a choice, which is an act of the will; i.e. the rational appetite. Pellicani's argument is silly. - James the Least Fri, 08 May 2009 14:59:47 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1707 Mr. Royal, As usual, a wonderful article! As a new convert I am intrigued by the retrospective view of not only my own arrogant ignorance, but to listen to the "experts" in the public square discuss the seperation of church and state with idiotic reasoning. I am in fear for my children when I consider what public schools are doing to our society in this regard; values free education. Thank you so very much, A - empress66 Fri, 08 May 2009 11:23:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1706 Thank you for a fine article, Mr. Royal. I think the introduction of homosexual/lesbian "marriage" into Europe and the U.S. has been a great boon for your argument as it demonstrates how vapid and obscene the secular reality IS rather than what it might become. - William H. Phelan Fri, 08 May 2009 11:22:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/a-dwindling-debate.html#comment-1705 Reason and no faith breeds nihilism and a depressed culture. Balanced Faith and reason breeds hope and a desire to perpetuate the culture. I am afraid, if something doesn't change, in the future you will be debating an Islamic fundamentalist in St. Peters square. They have religion and are certainly breeding. Gone will be the days of relatavism! I am hoping for that "God That Did Not Fail!" Buono Viaggio, Carissimo Professore! - William Dennis Fri, 08 May 2009 11:22:28 +0100