Free talk #2

(cont'd)

Free speech means that a person has the 1) right to say what he thinks should be said, but it also includes the 2) right of others to hear the dissenting view or the inconvenient fact (as the late Christopher Hitchens, famous atheist, said).

The first right is a matter of equal justice before the law, that one has the same right as others do to say what he thinks important. That right is also a matter of respect for the rationality and desires of all people since they too are created in God's image (not only the people who agree with me).

The second right honors truth. It is possible, even though we have good reason to think what we think, that we are wrong. We must allow for this. Under this concept, the dissenter must be allowed to bring to the discussion what we have so far rejected or neglected - because it could be a part of the truth that we missed.

And we want our decisions in society and in personal life to be based on truth, on what really is - not on a fantasy of what we'd like to pretend is true.