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Why restraint is religiously unacceptable

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1999

CHRISTOPHER J. EBERLE
Affiliation:
Concordia University, River Forest, IL 60305–1499

Abstract

I begin this essay by articulating an argument in support of the claim that theistic citizens ought not to support coercive policies for which they lack an adequate secular rationale. That argument employs various claims regarding God's nature to show: (i) that theistic citizens should expect to discern secular corroboration for each religiously grounded moral truth to which they adhere; and (ii) theistic citizens should doubt any religiously grounded moral claim for which they cannot discern an adequate secular rationale. I dispute both (i) and (ii) and conclude that theistic citizens may reasonably reject the claim that they ought not to support coercive policies for which they lack an adequate secular rationale.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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