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No, you do not need to be a follower of any religion in order to acquire a certain wisdom, nor in order to have a conscience. However, the great religions are the main value- bearing agents in culture, not only encouraging virtue, but supporting it through the hypothesis that the same Force which set the universe in motion and created life cares about whether or not we are kind, honest, and just. Furthermore, it is absurd to think that seriously held beliefs about good, evil, and the meaning of it all, will not affect the rhetoric and behavior of those who hold them. Indeed, without religion, it is doubtful that the civil rights movement would have been so successful, and it is no accident that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference lead the way. In the minds of the "religious right", it is the secularists who broke the peace, aggressively seeking to coopt the raising of their kids and disrespect their sensibilities, including deeply held, non- sectarian moral convictions, for example, on abortion...... |
