[lbo-talk] Religious (In)tolerance -- Chip? (Was Rationality of the Masses)

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On 6/10/05, Michael Pugliese <michael.098762001 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/10/05, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
> wrote:>...as long as
> you have some religion or another it's OK
> 
> http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/Research/EFaithAndFear.htm
> >...To anyone who remembers Eisenhower as president, that image may be
> amusing at best. After all, as he prepared to assume the presidency,
> he pronounced the words that made him famous to students of U.S.
> religion: "Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in
> a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is."
> Historians of religion have often used these words to highlight the
> unique quality of the 1950s religious revival, its so-called "faith in
> faith." Some have criticized the words as the epitome of a shallow and
> empty religiosity. Journalist William Lee Miller wrote at the time
> that Eisenhower seemed to present religion as something effortless,
> making no demands upon people and creating no complications in their
> lives.

yep.

it's a great quote. i ought to start using it in class and see how
students respond to that kind of expression of what many of them
already think. unfortunately, it is more often the more conservative
students who recognize the issues, here, but that is precisely because
they tend to be more particularist/exclusivist than
universalist/inclusivist.

it's very interesting (and troubling) to see students (a) "defend"
taoism, for example, against my "charges" that it is somehow
atheistic, and, on the other hand, (b) argue that confucianism does
not "qualify" as a religion. of course, these things vary from student
to student, but on the whole, that's the way they seem to go.

j

-- 
http://www.brainmortgage.com/

Among medieval and modern philosophers, anxious to establish
the religious significance of God, an unfortunate habit has prevailed
of paying to Him metaphysical compliments.

  - Alfred North Whitehead