Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the UK’s most senior Roman Catholic, has said secularism seeks to wipe out Christianity as religious intolerance increases.
The cardinal mounted a critical attack on atheism and its attitude to those with religious beliefs, warning: “In the name of tolerance it seems to me tolerance is being abolished.”
In an address at Leicester’s Anglican Cathedral, he spoke of a “deep unease” in western society.
Not a great fan of this bit of his argument, if it has been presented accurately:
[blockquote]”Our danger in Britain today is that so-called western reason claims that it alone has recognised what is right and thus claims totality that is inimical to freedom,”[/blockquote]
Making an exclusive truth claim is not inimical to freedom. Indeed, making the [i]right[/i] exclusive truth claim is arguably necessary for certain kinds of freedom to be possible. The problem with western reason isn’t that it makes exclusive truth claims, it is that in the name of tolerance it is seeking the right to become the established (anti)religion where ever the West has influence. It gets its truth claims (mostly) wrong, and then seeks to make them the basis of social and political life. But the solution to that isn’t to make no exclusive truth claims…
But this, and the couple of paragraphs/sentences before it made the whole article worth the read:
[blockquote]“An ageing population certainly presents its challenges – not least to our prejudices – but it is also an extraordinary gift,†he continued.
“When society only sees age as an expensive inconvenience, a threat to resources and lifestyles, it no longer sees a person but a problem.
“This permits a slow erosion of dignity; subtly and silently the process of dehumanisation has begun.â€[/blockquote]
I had kind of been aware of this problem around the corner, but something about the way it was said helped me realize better that the great increase in retirees is going to create a subtle but powerful pressure on inherent human dignity and value beyond the fallout from the euthanasia debate. Good to have the heads up on that this early.