Welcome! Formerly known as Libertas et Memoria, this is my blog on law, politics, faith, culture and the joys of the Inland Northwest.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Less religion = more government?
It sure looks that way.
This reminds me of a quote from the father of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke: "Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without."
Without the internal constraints upon human behavior provided by religious belief, a rise in the role and scope of government is inevitable. The internal constraints of conscience must give way to the external constraints of the government's coercive power.
Labels:
atheism,
ethics,
ideas,
liturgy,
popular culture,
religion in the public square,
virtue
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4 comments:
Mark, do any of these pundits have any evidence for anything that they say? Or do they just rattle off anything that they think will appeal to like minded folks?
Well, if one looks at Europe, for example, the trend seems to be that a decline in religious belief and practice goes along with a sharp rise in the power of the State. I don't think that the proposition in the article I linked to is really unsupported, Joe.
I read an article that went along a similar (corollary) vein (http://tinyurl.com/yfaowzk). It stated that "our increased reliance on laws [as opposed to moral restraint] to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we've become." This article doesn't feign scientific rigor; it's more editorializing. However, the point is well taken: as our society continues to replace notions of sin and wrong with secularized "value judgments," moral restraint starts to go out the door, and the government comes in to compensate. In turn, greater government intrusion and control means diminished freedom. (For an article about this freedom point, see http://tinyurl.com/ykfzdc9.)
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