Arguably everything in the news the past few weeks has been about the key importance of tolerance and freedom, especially religious tolerance and freedom. Three different moments capture a sense of the forces at work.
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Benedict XVI鱿鱼视频app visit to the United Kingdom, which started on , provoked numerous reflections on the and it鱿鱼视频app deeper on the part of and throughout the world. In the first day alone, Benedict made clear that despite the criticism, he was intent on fighting back the tide of secularism and insisting on the need for religious liberty. , the Pope, as is his wont, delved into history for evidence of the evil that can flow from the desire to kill off God and Religion. He was referring to Nazism but it seemed to . But as is often the case, the reality of a Papal visit canand charm, though of course the .
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The Papal visit, and its attendant arguments about 鈥榚xtreme鈥� atheism and religious liberty comes in the same week as given by John F. Kennedy while running for President. It鱿鱼视频app difficult to imagine now, but in that campaign the idea that a Catholic might be President was the subject of bitter debate. And the young candidate traveled to a meeting of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association where he delivered a plea and forged an argument about religious tolerance, liberty and the distinctions between By the issue and made his Presidency possible. But while possibly creating the space for Catholics in politics, the long-term result may have been to render Catholic values in politics difficult, or so of Denver and with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Stephen Hawking creates the third corner of this triangle of tolerance and liberty. The physicist made news this month with the assertionsin the creation of the universe. This is a shift from his thinking as expressed in early works. Hawking used to believe the universe needed a prime mover but now believes the Universe came into existence on its own. The list of people unimpressed is extensive and includes a Jesuit , and The intriguing think about Hawking and the God issue is the ease with which much of the media assumed that if Hawking says so then it must be so. The reality is that an assertion by Hawking that God didn鈥檛 exist is still an assertion, not a fact, which takes us back to the ideas of religious freedoms, religious tolerance and the dangers of extreme atheism.