There is quite a bit to like about Ayn Rand. I will say, very mildly, that had she not been an atheist, her influence would have been very much greater.
Had she not been an atheist, her philosophy would be incoherent.
“There is quite a bit to like about Ayn Rand. I will say, very mildly, that had she not been an atheist, her influence would have been very much greater.”
Agreed. She did such a good job of putting the enemy into fictional characters that have a truth about them. Wesley Mouch feels like an actual guy—you’ve met him at the front of the DMV line. You see him writing new environmental regulations. That’s what drives the left crazy.
Where Rand fails is in creating credible heros. Her heros are cartoon characters at best. Even at 16 years old, I chortled when the hero nobly traces out the sign of the mighty dollar in the sky. And that failure is directly related to her athiesm.
The hard left is also atheist and Rand decimates their principles and philosophy with objective logic and reason, tools the left and atheists are supposed to own (according to them). They can't stand it, beaten with their own weapons.
So, because of her unbelief, the rest of her opinion is without merit? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. There are certain principles we must agree on and others that we can disagree over. Faith and unbelief are personal matters and should be respected as such. Americans need to grow up and face reality. We are not going to find perfection in this life. We killed the last guy who was. Rand’s take on communism vs. capitalism is spot on and needs to be promoted if we are to survive as a free nation.
If she hadn't been a self-centered rotten person her influence would have been much greater.