"Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"

[David E. Guinn]

>"Starting from a grounding within a particular belief system" simply does
not entail being >committed to an "ideology" without circularity. In that
case "ideology" simply loses any analytic or >political significance and
should be abandoned.



I have no idea what this means.  My dictionary labels an ideology as "a
systematic body of concepts.the integrated assertions, theories, and aims
that constitute a sociopolitical program." (Websters New Collegiate).  I do
not see how either the neo-atheists or people of faith fail to fit within
this definition.  They not only start from the premises contained in their
respective ideologies, they advocate on their behalf.

 

In terms of religious freedom, it is easy to label religions as ideologies-I
simply stress that there are many comparable secular ideologies and, as Doug
Laycock and Michael McConnell among so many others on this list have argued,
favoring the secularist position often advanced by the neoatheists is
discriminatory.

 

David

 

David E. Guinn, JD, PhD

 

Recent Publications Available from SSRN at 
 <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=199608>
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=199608

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From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of RJLipkin at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 9:44 AM
To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: "Mormon Student, Justice, ACLU Join Up"

 

In a message dated 9/7/2007 11:51:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
davideguinn at hotmail.com writes:

My only concern is to point out that while everyone recognizes that theists
start from a grounding within a particular belief system, so too do
atheists.

    "Starting from a grounding within a particular belief system" simply
does not entail being committed to an "ideology" without circularity. In
that case "ideology" simply loses any analytic or political significance and
should be abandoned.

Bobby
      
Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of Law
Delaware

Ratio Juris, Contributor:  http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/
<http://ratiojuris.blogspot.com/> 
Essentially Contested America, Editor-In-Chief
http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/





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