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WINONA LAKE - Moral neutrality is a myth, according to Dr. John Patrick, professor in biochemistry and pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.
Tuesday, Patrick lectured on the subject at Westminster Hall, Winona Lake, as part of the American Lyceum Lecture Series.
"This particular talk is one that has changed my life more than anything else," he began after a brief prayer.
He wrote the speech after reading an education department paper that said medicine should be taught from a morally neutral standpoint, and that angered him.
Patrick sent his paper to a friend who had it published in a Christian Journal without his permission. From there, the interest in the paper grew and it took him around the world.
"There is no position such as a morally neutral one," said Patrick.
As part of his lecture, he also spoke on education.
Patrick, who is from Europe, said when he came to North America, he "was actually appalled by the American education system." Students in the American education system don't go to college to learn, he said, they go to earn credits.
He said not one student in the North American school system who got an A+ six months ago could get it the second time around. The American education system, he said, relies too much on memorization.
"If I had my my way," he said, "... and I could pass any law, it would be the abolition of the need for a certificate to teach." He said teaching isn't a skill that can be taught.
There are three kinds of teachers: teachers who love kids but don't love learning, teachers who love the subject they teach and want to teach it, and teachers who love the students and love the subject, he said. The last kind, he said, is the best one and "without those two passions, you cannot teach."
Patrick then discussed how society is trying to solve moral problems through technological means. That, he said, is what they did in Russia and once they took God out of the picture, the only way they could keep people in control was through terror.
Tolerance, Patrick said, has gone too far.
"One of our major problems is we don't have things in the right order," he said.
Tolerance, he said, came into existence because of Christians. However, along the way, the separation of church and state was turned so that instead of keeping state out of church, the church is being kept out of state.
Tolerance grew because people began talking about their "rights." Rights, he said, are talked about everywhere.
"Real rights have reciprocal rights," he said.
While tolerance is important and Christians ought to know it "because we are all sinners," there are limits, he said.
"One of our problems with our own society is we've lost our confidence in our morality," he said. Today's society is too afraid to be intolerant, he said. However, if society is to straighten up, he said, people will have to speak up and risk upsetting others.
There are six features of a society in decay, Patrick said. Those six features include: schism of the soul and loss of moral consensus; freedom from moral restraint; escapism; yielding to determinism; guilt and self-loathing; and general promiscuity, both intellectually and sexually.
Patrick said, "This is a world in decay and we need to face the reality."
When the Bible was taken out of schools in the 1960s, the key was taken away, he said.
"We now try to teach ethics through the bioethics model," he said.
He said, "The liberals have lost their confidence and rightly so, because they have nothing to be confident in."
A question-and-answer period was held after Patrick's lecture.
Patrick's lecture was presented by Grace College, Kosciusko Community Hospital and The Village at Winona.
