Submitted by Fender, Feb 28, 2008 10:22

in order to have freedom of any sort there has to be order and law. people have to refrain from saying I am free to burn down my neighbor's house. freedom has to be limited so that freedom may exist. it is religion that both allows freedom and also puts the brakes on freedom, so that there can be freedom. I have to be able to trust that those around me will refrain from many many actions that would destroy my freedom and perhaps even my happiness or life. whether there can be any peace or order or law without religion seems unlikely. the liberal idea that rationality is enough is not convincing, especially since so many liberal ideas are not rational. why is it more rational that abortion should be legal or that the arrrested are supposed innocent. from the viewpoint of preventing crime, it may be more rational to say you are supposed guilty and you have to prove your innocence. why is it wrong for people to like their own kind better than others? liberalism depends on inchoate emotions and irrationalities. without religion, that is, the judeo christian religion, without the inexplicable feeling, that descends from judeo christianity, that we have about how humans should be treated there would be no liberalism or freedom. like all liberals Nussbaum despises judeo christianity. but she should look at muslim societies and ask why is there no objection to what muslims are doing to other muslims in the sudan, for instance. why is someone like ayan hirsi ali threatened with death? the answer is that islam does not lead to liberalism, while judeo christianity does. of course, religion has negative consequences, but so does lack of religion. liberals like Nussbaum imagine that the end of judeo christianity will signal more liberalism. she is wrong. it will signal a different kind of religion that is less kind and less tolerant, whether it be gaia worship or santeria. because there will always be religion of some kind. I also see that Nussbaum hints that christians are violent. there is religious violence going on every day in islamic societies, but she would never comment on that.

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