Talks by John Patrick

The central thrust of all these talks is to help audiences, regardless of their beliefs, to understand the pivotal role played in all societies by faith and religion. We are all religious. We all have faith commitments whether we are Jews, Christians, Muslims or Secularists to take only the dominant approaches in the western world. The first three have significantly different beliefs about a transcendent God and the fourth a belief that we can run society as though there is no God. None can prove that their approach is self–evidently true.

It is however quite clear that there are significant differences between societies espousing each of these beliefs. Some of these differences appear to be incapable of compromise; a theocratic society cannot become democratic by negotiation. Only a fundamental change in thought will do that. Theocrats are not committed by their belief system to accommodating other view points.

Our society, loosely defined as "western" is the product of three ancient streams of thought and one modern. It is the product of Hebrew and Greek thought modified by the Church and over the last four centuries secularized. Only now as the dreams of the enlightenment lie ruined in the bloody twenty-first century are we beginning the difficult critique of the secular society. The Hebrew and Christian views have been rigorously examined for centuries; the Muslim one less so but, following September 11th, this is now slowly happening. The liberal, democratic secularists are resisting examination.

The examples which I discuss are easily grouped under three headings: those to help Christians re-enter the forum of public policy debate without apology for their religious beliefs, those concerned with moral and ethical problems in medicine, and those of a more general philosophical and theological nature. The first group can also be presented to secularists to show that their rejection of transcendent ideas is in fact without foundation.

Group 1 The Necessity of Belief

The starting point is an introduction to what happened at the end of the Middle Ages when we slowly privatized our personal beliefs, without noticing that we had thereby allowed secular beliefs to dominate. We all believe that government ought to be about making society better but we rarely discuss what "ought" or "better" mean.

  1. Can We be Good without God?
  2. Why is No-one able to Say they are Good?
  3. Is a Bland Multiculturalism Viable and True?
  4. Tolerance is Good but We don’t Tolerate Everything: The Role of Legitimate Intolerance.
  5. Changes in the Meanings of Words after the Enlightenment, especially "Fact" and "Explanation".

Group 2 Medical Ethics

The fundamental questions are not new but their current incarnations are. The old approach to medical ethics was to assume everyone was primarily concerned for their patients and therefore it was not necessary to discuss ethics. With the explosion of technical skills and the growth of cultural diversity this no longer suffices. We are now being told how to behave by an elite group of bio-ethicists whose beliefs are shared by only a minority of our patients. Despite this we continue to talk about patient centered ethics!

  1. Much More than a Baby Dies in Abortion. A Discussion of the Logical Consequences of Abortion Legislation.
  2. A Good Death. Physician Assisted Suicide and End of Life Decisions.
  3. Manipulating Human Society; the New Eugenic Consequences of Molecular Biology.
  4. Autonomy, Justice, Beneficence and Non-malificence; What to do When They Clash.
  5. Every Patient Inhabits a Story. Narrative Ethics and Medicine.

Group 3 The Big Questions

In the beginning what? Why am I here? Where am I going? How do I come to terms with death, particularly my own? How do I make sense of suffering? How can I believe in justice? What can I know? What must I believe? And What ought I therefore to do, particularly in raising virtuous children?

  1. Character and its Formation According to Jesus
  2. Why are there no Hittites on the Streets of New York?
  3. Knowing God - Much More than Conversion.
  4. Why most Physicians Hate Church.
  5. The Four Levels of Happiness.

Talks Previously listed and still Available

Group 1 The Necessity of Belief

  1. Irreducible Complexity
  2. The Myth of Moral Neutrality
  3. The Myth of Multi-culturism
  4. Loving Children and Loving Books: The Pillars of Education
  5. The Culture of Death
  6. Enlightenment Paradigms
  7. Secularism is a Belief, Too

Group 2 Medical Ethics

  1. Christian Thought in the Development of Western Science
  2. Ramifications of the Supposed Right to Choose
  3. Surviving Medical School with your Faith Intact
  4. The Sanctity of Life
  5. Meaning and Purpose in Medicine
  6. Moral Imperatives in Medical Care
  7. Faith, Medicine and Health Care
  8. Why Ethics Courses do not make us Ethical and What does
  9. What Hippocrates Knew and We have Forgotten
  10. The Secret of Caring for your Patient is in the Caring
  11. Limited Resources in Medicine
  12. The Disabled and Human Dignity
  13. The Unborn and Human Dignity
  14. Narrative Ethics
  15. Domino Effect of Legalising Abortion
  16. Conscience Laws and the Christian Doctor
  17. Technology and the Depersonalisation of the Patient

Group 3 The Big Questions
  1. Mere Christian or Believer?
  2. The Sermon on the Mount
  3. Conversion and Virtue: Are they the same?
  4. The Nine Questions We All have to Answer
  5. The Dangers of Subjective Faith
  6. The Formation of Family and Society; Deut 4-6
  7. How Did We Get Here?
  8. Culture and Development
  9. Beauty and Education
  10. The Strange Story of the Word 'Fact'
  11. From Ockham to Dawkins: Changing Tacit Assumptions

 

Dr. John Patrick  ©2010