By the way, my article in the JLR is based on research from my dissertation which pre-dated my association with Americans United.
-- Steven K. Green, J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor Director, Center for Law and Government Willamette University College of Law 245 Winter St., SE Salem, OR 97301 503-370-6732
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Divine source, perhaps, but certainly not the God of the Bible, but rather a diestic "creator" or "nature's God."
Paul FInkelman
Quoting Francis Beckwith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Very good questions. I think one could teach the logic of the Declaration without saying that it is true. For example, I frequently lecture on thinkers and arguments that I don't think are correct, but I do so because I would not be a virtuous teacher. On the other hand, it may be that some religious beliefs are more consistent with a just regime than others. For example, from your perspective a religion that taught its adherents that the state should teach in its schools the true religion would be a religion that is mistaken about the nature of the state.
Frank
On 12/18/04 3:23 PM, "Ed Brayton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Francis Beckwith wrote:
The declaration says three things about rights:
1. That they are self-evident 2. That they are inalienable 3. That they have divine source
So, Ed seems to be suggesting that we jettison teaching the
third because
there is no principled way to teach it with out implying
the falsity of
other takes on God and rights. But, as you know, there are
many who
challenge the inalienability and self-evidence of rights
precisely on the
grounds that if rights have these non-material properties,
it seems that
some form of non-naturalism must be the case and theism is
a form of
non-naturalism. So, there's good reason to ignore 1 and 2
as well since it
may lead one to think that theism has a lot more going for
it in grounding
rights than let's say materialism.
I'm not suggesting that we not teach that this is the
philosophy behind
the Declaration, I'm just saying that if we allow teachers
to advocate
that the theological position is true, how do we prevent
them from
advocating any other theological position? If we cannot do
so, then
we'll have quite a mess on our hands as Muslim teachers
teach their
students that the Quran is true, for instance, or atheist
teachers teach
that the bible is false. From a practical standpoint, this
clearly isn't
workable, but at the same time you cannot constitutionally
say that we
will allow teachers to teach some theological positions but
not others.
How would you address that question, which was at the core
of what I said?
Ed Brayton _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password,
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Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law Univ. of Tulsa College of Law 2120 East 4th Place Tulsa OK 74104-3189
Phone: 918-631-3706 Fax: 918-631-2194 _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
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