{"id":2903,"date":"2013-06-07T00:28:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T04:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/?p=2903"},"modified":"2020-11-22T15:51:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T20:51:51","slug":"the-rights-of-error-and-the-death-of-tolerance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2013\/06\/the-rights-of-error-and-the-death-of-tolerance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rights of Error and the Death of Tolerance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s the title of my latest installment over at The Catholic Thing<\/strong><\/a>. Here\u2019s how it begins:<\/p>\n

\n

Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t open your mind, boys
\nTo every conceivable point of view\u201d
\n\u2013\u00a0Bob \u00a0Dylan,\u00a0\u201cHigh Water (For Charley Patton),\u201d<\/a>\u00a02001<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many years ago I was a guest on a national radio show to discuss one of my books. I forget which one, but I vividly remember an encounter I \"\"<\/a>had with a listener who called the program. He was clearly upset that I was offering reasons for the sanctity of unborn human life, that I was explaining in some detail why I believe that the preborn human being has a personal nature and that abortion is unjustified homicide.<\/p>\n

After some initial small talk, and my answering his question about human personhood, the caller asserted with obvious exasperation: \u201cDr. Beckwith, you\u2019re just intolerant. You seem so sure that you are right, and that everybody else is wrong.\u201d For someone like me, who moonlights as a philosophical comedian, this sort of assertion is almost too good to be true. It\u2019s the type of clich\u00e9d, mindless platitude that has kept the book I wrote with\u00a0Gregory P. Koukl<\/a>,\u00a0Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air<\/a><\/em>, in print for fifteen years.<\/p>\n

I answered the caller by asking this question, \u201cAm I wrong in thinking this way?\u201d It is an interrogative response that Greg and I have employed on numerous occasions and have shared with many an audience. The caller replied, \u201cYes.\u201d I then said, \u201cThen, you\u2019re exactly like me. You think you\u2019re right and I\u2019m wrong. The difference is that I actually admit I believe something is true. You, on the other hand, believe something is true, but act as if you really don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

>>>continue reading<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the title of my latest installment over at The Catholic Thing. Here\u2019s how it begins: Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew \u201cYou can\u2019t open your mind, boys To every conceivable point of view\u201d \u2013\u00a0Bob \u00a0Dylan,\u00a0\u201cHigh Water (For Charley Patton),\u201d\u00a02001 Many years ago I was a guest on a national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,64,365,122,366],"tags":[22175,22211,22253,367],"class_list":["post-2903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bob-dylan","category-greg-koukl","category-liberalism","category-relativism","category-tolerance","tag-bob-dylan","tag-greg-koukl","tag-relativism","tag-tolerance-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Rights of Error and the Death of Tolerance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's the title of my latest installment over at The Catholic Thing. 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