| Subject: Author Response |
Author:
Jason Junge
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Date Posted: 17:23:01 12/16/02 Mon
First off, I'd like to thank Kevin and LibertyForAll for the review of "Why Freedom." There's something I'd like to clarify, however. I do not want readers to get the idea I'm a rabid agnostic. I do not consider religion "right" or "wrong"-- all philosophies entail trade-offs, and Christianity is no exception. The point of the chapter on Theism, as is a large point of the book, is that freedom only comes into existence through knowledge. We all have the freedom (in the US, anyway) to choose our personal philosophy, but only if we know the tenets, risks, and tradeoffs of that philosophy. To choose anything blindly is not an exercise in freedom- it's an abdication of responsibility. If you don't know or understand the choices you have, then you cannot make a rational decision, which means you've forfeited your freedom to choose.
Take voting as an example-- if you vote without knowing the candidates' platforms, then you are not exercising your freedom to vote. You could be voting for an Authoritarian without knowing it, when instead you may be a Libertarian. Worse than wasting your vote, you've gone against your own beliefs, abdicating the responsibility implied in voting-- freedom is meaningless without knowledge.
Take an even more basic example. Say you're a newly naturalized US citizen, but don't know you're now allowed to vote. Since you don't know you're allowed to vote, then you "can't" vote, which in practice means you don't possess the freedom to vote. Here freedom only comes into existence through knowledge of that freedom.
My chapter on theism is thus not a condoning or condemnation of any specific philosophy-- it's an argument against blind faith.
Thus, and in general to my point, the fight for freedom should first be waged through books and in (or against, in the case of the public system) the classroom.
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