I would maintain that he has held his beliefs on life issues for a long time; they are sothoroughly engrained into his being...as natural as eating, sleeping, breathing.....he doesn't have to sit and ponder the rightness or wrongness. I see long-time held beliefs as stumbling blocks to what some would consider as 'johnny-come-latelys' (not meant in a negative way, but only as a newcomer to a belief or principle). With this comes a self-assurance and confidence that could be interpreted as something other than exhibiting self-confidence.
To provide an example.....on the 'touchy' subject of philosophers.....Keyes just happened to study a lot of philosophy/philosophers in college and at the same time, he is quite religious. It is a natural occurence that if he was questioned, and most assuredly the left was asking for one reason and the right was asking for another, he would offer an indepth answer....it is quite likely he could have gone into a LOT more depth on the issue. Ditto the same scenario as the brouhaha over the Confederate Flag--while some politicos weren't really wanting to answer, a la McCain, others did answer right that it was a states right issue; Keyes went a step further trying to educate and get folks to think about what the issue was about--that if they didn't like the Confederate Flag, they should be hating Old Glory (essentially).
Another area is in the matter of life.....Dr. Keyes is so assured and confident in the matter that he will go head to head with anyone without backing down. He KNOWS that in order to have Embryonic Stem Cell Research THE EMBRYO HAS TO DIE; there would be no having to 'study' the issue and get opinions from others--who generally have vested interests rather than rightness in mind (you know the thing about opinions...and numerically how they equate). Case closed--fedgov would not be contributing a cent to ESCR--that would be to reward the killers of embryos. Many people can't, or won't even try to, understand this, but it is as much a part of Dr. Keyes persona as is his ability to speak passionately.
I'm really looking forward to shows where issues can be discussed, dissected, analyzed, etc. To get some dialog going on issues and policies would be great.
What say you?