Thank you, yes, emotion and reason, being from God, are good. But, we generally feel reason is more secure and emotion more prone to error. As Christians, we want to discipline our emotions during the good times, so that they help us to deal with the tough times. Rand would say we want to fall in love with what is good. Yet, in her novels, it doesn’t always work out that way. Rand’s characters are flawed. But, aren’t we all. In Christianity, we say there is forgiveness. For us, the victory is won and our salvation is secure. In Rand’s novels, there is drama.
Look, I am very forgiving of Rand. She wrote at a time when socialism was ascendent and the church corrupted by Marxist thinking. So, she was strong against collectivism and strong for the heroic individual, when that was what was needed. Today things are different, or are they? The prior Pope skipped over Centisimus Anus in his social teachings and returned the Catholic Church to its accommodation with the welfare state, or so it seems. And this current Pope doesn’t sound like an advocate for free market capitalism. So, if church leaders are so wrong on matters of economics and physical science, why is Ayn Rand held to the standard of perfection?
I don't hold Rand to the standard of perfection. I just find some deep flaws in her overarching philosophy. Rand is like an art historian at an archaelogical dig. She may have found a few amulets, vases, sculptures etc., which she understands with great vision and clarity, but fails to grasp their role and significance in the greater context of the site.
Specifically, her views on abortion *rights*, I find abhorrent and repulsive from both a logical and emotional standpoint. Furthermore, the historical record strongly suggests that her contempt for the notions of altruism and self-sacrifice, are unworkable at best and self-defeating at worst.