{"id":393,"date":"2008-12-02T16:51:22","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T00:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=393"},"modified":"2008-12-05T18:12:40","modified_gmt":"2008-12-06T02:12:40","slug":"a-model-of-rational-critique-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/a-model-of-rational-critique-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"A model of rational critique?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Jonah Goldberg <a href=\" http:\/\/corner.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=MzNiNGM1YzA3YTczYjVhMDFmNGMyYzYyYjFmMDEyNjM=\">posts the \u201cappalled\u201d Ed Feser <\/a>on secular conservatives.\u00a0 Apparently Mr. Feser thinks of himself as the opposite of \u201csmugly unreflective and dogmatic.\u201d\u00a0 Readers can decide for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0I will respond to just one of Mr. Feser\u2019s un-smug, non-dogmatic statements: that only someone blithely ignorant of religion would call it \u201cunscientific.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I wonder to which science Mr. Feser is referring.\u00a0 There was the Templeton prayer experiment, and that didn\u2019t work out too satisfactorily, did it?\u00a0 Granted, the research design was laughable, in a charming sort of way (the people praying for the recovery of cardiac patients, for example, were only given the patient\u2019s first name and last initial, on the assumption presumably that God would know to which Jim G. they were referring).\u00a0 Perhaps Mr. Feser could propose a more scientifically rigorous design to show the efficacy of petitionary prayer or any other religious practice of his choosing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The curious thing to me is why the idea of secular conservatism is so \u201cappalling\u201d to Mr. Feser and others.\u00a0 We are only proposing that the basis of conservatism\u00a0 can be broadened beyond revelation to rest on an understanding of human nature itself.\u00a0 Reason and the evidence of history show the crucial importance of parental responsibility, self-discipline, limited government, and free economic exchange in creating a society in which individuals can most thrive.\u00a0 Do religious conservatives believe that only religious belief grounds conservatism?\u00a0 That position strikes me as rather an admission of defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Secular conservatives applaud the virtues put forth in various Holy Books, we simply claim them\u2014proudly&#8211;as the creation of human beings, to which all have access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Jonah Goldberg posts the \u201cappalled\u201d Ed Feser on secular conservatives.\u00a0 Apparently Mr. Feser thinks of himself as the opposite of \u201csmugly unreflective and dogmatic.\u201d\u00a0 Readers can decide for themselves.\u00a0 \u00a0I will respond to just one of Mr. Feser\u2019s un-smug, non-dogmatic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/a-model-of-rational-critique-ii\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1132,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}