“Chesterton, by his own report, found himself pushed step by step towards Christian orthodoxy. Asked why he believed what he did, he replied: Because I perceive life to be logical and workable with these beliefs and illogical and unworkable without them. Modern libertarians will find that a strange claim; despite a small minority of Christians, most vocal libertarians today seem to be either agnostics or atheists. So far as my own intellectual experience is concerned, I have not, despite my admiration for Chesterton, become a Catholic or even a theist. I have, however, found myself forced step by step into a philosophical position that might be described as Catholicism without God—the belief that statements about right and wrong are true or false in essentially the same way as statements about physical reality, that one should not torture children is a fact in very nearly the same sense as if you drop things they fall. I will not try to defend that conclusion here, but I think it worth recording as evidence that modern readers, especially libertarians, should take seriously Chestertons claim concerning the connection between his political and religious views.” ~ David Friedman, in “The Machinery of Freedom” , p.118 bit.ly/apPHYx (PDF file) [I was reminded of Professor Friedmans comment when reading Justin Raimondo s column last week in Antiwar entitled “American Apocalypse” which starts out: “I don’t believe in God. However, I do believe in divine retribution....” bit.ly/17xeqJ9 ]
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 02:05:24 +0000
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