Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

See also Christ vs. Plato, Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx, a thread on a Christmas essay by Lev Navrozov.
1 posted on 12/27/2003 2:24:14 PM PST by NutCrackerBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies ]


Science is a noble profession; it is not by itself a way of life. It is predominantly a habit of the mind, much less of the will. -Michael Novak

In a nutshell, science does not teach us "thing one" about values.

2 posted on 12/27/2003 2:40:08 PM PST by NutCrackerBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: NutCrackerBoy
Thought-provoking and nourishing essay. Thank you for posting it.
5 posted on 12/27/2003 2:50:33 PM PST by speedy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: NutCrackerBoy

As James Madison writes in his Remonstrance, "This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe... If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered."

FT April 2003: The Faith of the Founding

Only Judaism and Christianity have a doctrine of God as Spirit and Truth, Who created the world in order to invite these creatures endowed with intelligence and conscience to enter into friendship with Him. Only the Jewish and Christian God made human beings free, halts the power of Caesar at the boundaries of the human soul, and has commissioned human beings to build civilizations worthy of the liberty He has endowed in them. So high is this God’s valuation of human liberty of conscience that, even though He has launched a divinely commissioned religion in history (in two Covenants, Jewish and Christian), He would not have either of these religions imposed by force on anyone. So devoted were the American founders to this understanding of religious liberty that, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography (1821), the authors of the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom refrained from mentioning the exact name of the "holy author of our religion." Here is Jefferson’s explanation for the omission:

Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the words "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion"; the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.

Madison gives powerful Christian reasons for such forbearance. Alone among the religions of the world, Judaism and Christianity place so high a valuation upon religious liberty because of their own doctrine that the relation God seeks with humans is friendship.

6 posted on 12/27/2003 2:53:10 PM PST by Federalist 78
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: NutCrackerBoy
As a further note, God chose the Jews. He did not choose anyone else (including me)...but...through Christ, He gave the rest of us the chance to choose Him.

Merry Christmas.

7 posted on 12/27/2003 3:22:16 PM PST by Chairman Fred (@mousiedung.commie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: NutCrackerBoy
Thank you! Great article. Can't remember seeing anything better by Novak.
8 posted on 12/27/2003 4:41:11 PM PST by possible
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson