Posted by
voice_of_reason on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 8:40:28 PM
I don't discount the contributions that are inspired by religion, and by religious people.
If religion is the ONLY source of morality for many people, then it should be encouraged. However, I think that we would be selling our compatriots short by making that assumption.
Also, religion (and often, the interpretation of religion) can bring inconsistencies into our political and social lives.
For example, altruism is a core tenet of Judeo-Christian principles. Altruism, when applied as the philosophical basis of political and economic policy, leads to 'feel-good' legislation such as minimum wage increases, universal health care, welfare, progressive taxation, and other unworkable premises.
Observe the helplessness of Religious Conservatives when they try to vote down such proposals - while still trying to appear to have the moral high ground. All that they can do is to whine plaintively that "it doesn't work".
Without the albatross of altruism, Conservatives should be able to say that "It is immoral to ask productive people to be victims AND it doesn't work".
The mess that results from this is that non-religious Liberals absurdly seize the moral high ground with well-intentioned but fallacious arguments. Note that the liberals' mystical beliefs merely replace "religion" with some euphemism such as "the state", or "the common good".