Bishop Robert Barron Goes to Facebook Headquarters
Click on this link and listen to the speech given by his Eminence, Bishop Robert Barron who was invited to speak at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. What is the irony of this situation? And does that impact the "kairos" of the speech? How does Bishop Barron establish his ethos, more specifically how does he establish his arete, phronesis and the eunoia within the speech. How does Bishop Barron appeal to pathos? How does he put into sync the audiences emotions and how is he attempting to get the audience to "thrive"? In other words, how does he align the emotions with reason? What is the overall message of the piece and do you feel he does that successfully? If so, how? And if not, why? Provide specific examples from the speech.
A person’s beliefs are one of the most important things to them, and for many that belief is religion. Therefore arguing about and, more importantly, defending the faith is one of the most important skills we could have. Yet, not many of us know how to do this properly or effectively. Bishop Barron goes into the Facebook seminar saying, “I could come here and talk about prayer or God or anything, but I'm coming here as a holy man to teach you how to argue.” This seems kind of ironic. I mean, you wouldn't think a holy person such as a bishop would come to teach how to argue, you would probably think he would want more peace. But he realizes how important this skill is and recognizes not enough people can do so. He decided to discuss it in a public setting because that also how people like to argue now. He gives an example of how people do this to him which can help us relate to him a little more. It's human instinct to want to win in an argument, it just seems to be how we are. Father Barron uses this drive within us to want to go out and use what we are taught by him. Throughout his speech there is a common theme, if faith doesn't seem to follow reason it's because it is beyond reason, not below it. I feel he explains this by the use of philosophy. This doesn't use scientific evidence or reasoning, yet we know it to be true. What Shakespeare says we believe to be true, so there is no excuse to why we think faith needs to be proved in a different way. So is your faith something you are willing to stand up for and properly argue about?
ReplyDeleteI like how you put in Shakespeare's idea about the fact that faith does not need to be proven if it's what we believe in. Many people can be influenced by that idea because he was such a good and well known writer.
DeleteI like how you point out that we stereotype priests and just automatically think why would a priest argue? They are people just like us dealing with the same things maybe even worse in some cases.
DeleteI like how you start off talking about how much a person faith can really say about them. I really like the question at the end.
DeleteDefending your beliefs is extremely important but do any of us really know how to do it? Bishop Barron takes it upon himself in a comfortable public setting to try and teach us how to do something extremely important, argue. All of us argue but we probably aren't doing it very effectively. Barron established what he was planning to do very early on, “I’m coming here as a holy man to teach you how to argue.” Priests would have to know how to argue because believe it or not they probably have to defend their religious beliefs more than us, it is easier to spot a priest than it is to spot a catholic. He explains to us the importance to argue and gives us this tool, that faith is beyond reason you don't need to see, feel, or hear it to know it's true and to believe. I don't know about anyone else but when it comes to me I've had people who ask how God could possibly be real if science can't prove he's real, if science proofs everything else why can't it prove this? As Catholics we know that there are some mysteries in the catholic faith but other people don't understand that and maybe they never will but it all comes in time.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out that priests have to argue more than us since it's usually easier to spot them. I never realized that.
DeleteI completely agree with the portion of your comment concerning the importance of argument when it comes to belief. You, like Bishop Barron, point out that faith is beyond reason and thus is not necessarily provable by human standards such as science. You bring up some good points drawn from personal experience, which I appreciate.
DeleteI like how you addressed that there isn't really any way to prove that God is real but by our Catholic faith only, we believe. All we use to argue over things like this is our Catholic faith and most of the time the Catholic arguer makes a solid point that someone who doesn't believe cannot disprove.
DeleteArgument is connectivity. It is conversation. It is the pursuit of truth. It is the way to peace. These are the overarching themes present in Bishop Robert Barron’s speech, “How to Have a Religious Argument” at Facebook Headquarters. Of course, the irony of the situation is that Bishop Barron, a Catholic authority, is making an appeal to one of the most secular organizations located in the center of Southern California, one of the most infamously irreverent locales in the United States. Somehow, despite the natural opposition present as a result of his whereabouts, he manages to make himself a credible and logical figure. The bishop does so by establishing his ethos, namely his phronesis, arete, and eunoia. His phronesis, or wisdom, is apparent through his subtle appeals to the transcendentals of beauty, truth, and goodness throughout his presentation. He understands the simple human desires for the three, and he makes himself a guide so that his audience can find them. Bishop Barron’s virtue or arete is assumed though his position as a bishop, but he further proves his virtue through his outlook and approach to answering philosophical and existential questions. His eunoia, or goodwill, is solidified through his desire for the audience to understand. Bishop Barron wants his audience to be capable of reaching conclusions on objective truths. Not only does he want to help his audience to understand, but he intends for his audience, as the title of the presentation would suggest, to impart on others the same knowledge they garner from him through the perpetuation of learning. Bishop Barron manages to put his audience at ease though logic and order. In the end, he successfully accomplishes his goal through eloquence and a full understanding of faith and reason.
ReplyDeleteI like how you bring up that arguments are conversations. We forget that often times.
DeleteDo we really know how to argue or defend are beliefs? Some of us yes and some no, and the irony within Bishop Robert Barron’s speech is that he is a man of strong belief not really sharing his faith but spreading the skill of arguing faith. Robert Barron’s goal of the speech is to enhance the audiences skills in arguing over religion. He aligns the audiences emotion with how he is trying to get the audience to thrive with their religion by teaching them that faith is beyond reason, it is something that is believed in so it does not need to be reasonable because it is further than reason. He aligns the audiences emotions with reason by telling them that faith is not irrational or rational but beyond rational and over our understanding at some points which is very alike to the catholic faith, it is built upon mystery. Everyone has their faith questioned by another at some point and Bishop Robert Barron’s goal is to help others have a productive religious argument. He wants the audience to thrive in their argument of religion impacting the other person yet still understanding their point of view. Then he wants us to resolve the argument through truth and not power. If power comes before truth then vulnerability becomes violence. Then after the argument is resolved, we are to proceed to spread our opinion of religion and not keep it a hobby or closed to ourselves. Bishop Barron teaches us to argue our faith because argument is overcoming violence and argument cannot be avoided which ultimately is the overall message. Bishop Robert Barron wants us to be able to defend our own faith rather than to hide it in our own minds.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you really stressed on the idea of faith and reason. Those are two very important qualities in a religious argument.
DeleteAlthough many people have a stern belief in their religion, whether they believe it's there or not, most aren't the best at showing that. A good way to stand for what you believe in is to argue with others that disagree. Bishop Robert Barron in his Facebook seminar supports arguing. He said that most people are either one sided, where they only can see one side of the argument and decline anything the other arguer says, or they don't argue at all because they are scared to talk about what they believe in because they are scared what others may think about them afterward. Bishop Robert Barron thinks that more people need to be in between the two, which would mean the people arguing would have to be careful with what they say, but while standing their ground and being open minded at the same time. This may seem like a difficult thing to do, but that's how we converse with each other. Arguing is how we socialize and how one another become close. In this specific video, arguing about religion should be just as easy to argue about as arguing about, for example, which movie is better.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how many people are nervous to spread or defend their faith because they are afraid of what people think of them. A combination of the two would make an effective arguer.
DeleteYou are absolutely right in that argument is how we learn about one another. It is through argument, a pure form of conversation meant to bring about critical thought, that we learn not only to understand but also how to make others understand us.
DeleteGod’s not real. That could never happen. How do you believe that? How do you answer these questions? What do you say when someone is denying your faith? This is exactly what Bishop Baron is trying to teach us. In other words, we need to know how to defend our faith. The bishop starts off his talk saying that he is there, as a catholic bishop, to tell us how to defend our faith. Saying that he is a catholic bishop is establishing his ethos, or authority. This whole facebook live thing about arguing is ironic because he is a bishop. We all think he should be telling us how to make peace or just accepting how other people want to talk about our faith. The bishop is trying to help us during this talk. He isn't there to teach us how to argue for his own benefit, but for ours. This helps him to establish goodwill. He talks about how our faith cant really be proven by science. I this this is interesting because often times I find people telling me to “prove it”. Understanding that God is not an item to be found on earth is critical to defending our faith.
ReplyDeleteI like that you opened your topic with questions we might face as Catholics, it gives you something to think about.
DeleteI like how you established that he was there for the audience and not himself because teaching the audience how to argue will not really benefit the him but it will for themselves.
DeleteI really like how you started off with these questions because all of us have been asked the same questions at least once.
DeleteI agree that it is ironic how a Bishop is inspiring argument rather than inspiring peace, he truly understands the product of argument. The product of argument can lead to peace and understanding which I think is what he was going for.
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