For the Sake of Argument: Why the Greatest Threat to Civilization Today is the Denial of Reason and Free Will

Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 3:304:15 p.m.

Free Will and Determinism Track

Ed Mazza, Ph.D., History and Political Science

C.S. Lewis said that thanks to the media, the average Joe has a “dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about...inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false,’ but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical,’ ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary,’ ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless.’ Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.” Indeed, “the hardest thing to find in the world today is an argument,” to borrow the words of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: “Prejudice there is in abundance and sentiment too, for these things are born of enthusiasms without the pain of labor. Thinking, on the contrary, is a difficult task; it is the hardest work a man can do—that is perhaps why so few indulge in it.” Soundbites and slogans like “Love Wins!” or “Love Trumps Hate” again “go rattling by us like express-trains, carrying the burden of those who are too lazy to think for themselves.” Is “love” just a feeling? Few realize they have a soul with reason and free will, and that to love is to will the objective good of another. Only Truth makes us free.

Location

John and Marilyn Duke Academic Complex, Room 517
701 E. Foothill Blvd.
Azusa, CA 91702
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