Utilitarians and Christians... thoughts on a conference featuring Peter Singer.

Yesterday and today I attended a conference here at Oxford's McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life, featuring the (in)famous utilitarian ethicist, Peter Singer. The goal was to create a dialogue between Singer's brand of preference utilitarianism and Christian ethics, in order to discover what areas of common ground, if any, might be found between them.

All in all, I would say this goal was accomplished, which was a pleasant result for someone like me who appreciates it when people actually listen to each other, instead of vilifying each other. Nevertheless, there were (of course) disagreements, and quite a few important (I think) points for consideration. So, let me provide a quick overview of the conference and what I took away from it.

haven't done this in a while...

I used to semi-regularly post some of my favorite song lyrics. I think I'll start doing that again. This time it's the song 'Savannah' by the metalcore band Zao. The story behind the song is that the vocalist for the band read a news article about a former adult film star named Savannah who was injured in a car accident. Her face was disfigured, and this trauma was too much for her, so she committed suicide. A grim reminder of what can happen whenever human beings are objectified and 'mechanized'. Never forget that we are all alive beneath our shells...


A day not to forget
The machine has collapsed under the program it's been given
Look inside the broken shell
Look inside the broken shell
To see the broken heart
They can't believe the machine was alive but we saw it bleed
We saw it bleed
The machine it falls apart and when it's cut it bleeds
The machine bleeds
She was alive

in contrast to other recent news...

Here is a sweet story about a 6-year old girl who wrote a letter to God, and Rowan Williams' response:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100084843/a-six-year-old-girl-writes-a-letter-to-god-and-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-answers/

10 years and two wars later...

Well, I don't really have much to say about the announcement that Osama bin Laden has evidently been killed. Rather, I will direct you all to a post by Jeff Keuss, who says what I'm thinking better than I can at this moment:

http://www.jeffkeuss.com/blog/?p=811

This is definitely worth a read. Thanks, Jeff.