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8-24-13
Continued- Why It’s Hard to Dialogue With Secularists and Leftistsâ : Catholic Stand
8-24-13
My blog title, Little Catholic Bubble, is a bit tongue-in-cheek. I love my faithful Catholic friends, but I also enjoy engaging the left, mostly secular humanists, in cultural debates. Three main frustrations, however, make it hard to have a productive discussion.
The first frustration is the tendency by many liberals to duck out early. I take a pseudo-Socratic approach to dialogue, asking a series of questions in an attempt to follow an argument to its logical conclusion, and often my opponent quits right at that threshold. It might look like this:
Me: Do you think the unborn are as human as you are?
Abortion Advocate: No, I dont.
Me: What do you think they are?
AA: They are potential humans.
Me: At what moment do they become fully human?
AA: At viability. {Other answers include: brainwaves, heartbeat, the second trimester, birth, three months after birth, sentience, etc.}
Me: Is that objectively true, or is that simply your opinion?
AA: After deep inquiry and thought, thats my conclusion.
Me: Okay, well, how do you pinpoint the exact second that humanity begins, so that we dont accidentally kill any innocent people?
AA: We cant pinpoint an exact second, but its a good estimate.
Me: Isnt that arbitrary and subjective?
AA: Well, we have to draw the line somewhere.
Me: Why do we have to draw the line anywhere? Death is irrevocable. If we might be killing innocent people, shouldnt we always err on the side of life?
Suddenly, silence. One of numerous unanswered questions on my blog.
If a thread doesnt end in silence, it might end in the next frustration, which is an irrational explosion of raw emotion, either offensive (You racist, sexist, patriarchal, judgmental, pedophile-protecting, bigoted, homophobic fetus-lover! You hate the poor, you rape the earth, and you dont care about children after theyre born!) or defensive (You think Im evil! You dont think I have any morals! You are calling me a monster!). Not to mention myriad other choice phrases and obscenities that cannot be printed here.
Continued- Why It’s Hard to Dialogue With Secularists and Leftistsâ : Catholic Stand