[beckett]

It is true that Strauss was always careful to couch his philosophy in strictly secular terms. However, he did so not to refute or discount out of the hand the deep myteries posited by religion, but only as an expression of his aversion to passion in politics in all its forms, whether it be rooted in religious or secular "spiritualism." He called religion a "noble lie," but I don't believe he was a whole-hog atheist. Agnostic would describe him better, I think. He never indulged in the deeply hostile anti-God rhetoric that one finds on FR.

Strauss rejected the rationalist dream of reconstructing the human world on the basis of "the latest metaphysical (Rand) or utopian (Lenin) certainties," and the "fideist" spurning of reason in favor of irrational religious (Osama bin Laden) or nationalist (Hitler) enthusiasms. He wanted reasons for action to be concrete, tried and true, and attested to by experience, a pragmatism "low but solid."

I have seen nothing from Betty that resembles the kind of enthusiasms that bothered Strauss. He would, I'm sure, have felt that they were both singing from the same hymnal, as it were.

[tpaine]

Strauss? -- I thought the words I quoted were probably the conclusions of the reviewer on the authors ideas.

-- And the last few posts we exchanged on the 'original intent' thread left no doubt as to my point. - The quotes above are relevant to that point, if you make an effort to understand. Somehow, I doubt you will.