TAC: Heather Mac Donald

HM: "The presumption of religious belief -- not to mention the contradictory thinking that so often accompanies it -- does damage to conservatism by resting its claims on revealed truth."

Well, that's quintessential ineffective umbrage, right there.

I have a great deal of sympathy for her overall viewpoint-- people in my family who are fiscally conserative, small-government Catholics would agree that revealed truth isn't a sound basis for governance.

But then she just _has_ to throw in there that religious thinking is usually contradictory. Why do that? Because expressing disdain and frustration is more important than just making a point, I guess. I swear, that kind of attitude is why athiests are their own worst enemy.

Well, and God, too. He's not a great enemy to have, either.>

Sorry, Tom, but as much as you or I might disagree with her perception, it is that perception that counts, not any exhortation to refrain from offending your religious sensibilities.

I'm very religious. I'm also a Pagan. I have no difficulty accepting the view that my faith contains contradictions. It doesn't offend me in the slightest, because I have exactly that POV of Christianity. Hi, Mr. Pot, I'm Mr. Kettle. We are both black.>

Do you have a link to her story?>

Heather MacDonald is best known as a defender of the probity of law enforcement. She is an able advocate (second to none, really), but her field of interest is not that of the most salient social problems (which is fine).


Leaving aside Nat Hentoff and the late Christopher Lasch, are there any prominent secularists who make it a point to concern themselves with those aspects of the age that make it as appalling as it is? Mayble 'religious conservatives' assume 'they alone occupy the field' because their unchurched auxilliary is (when it counts) a corporal's guard.>

Testing.>