Religion & Law

This post, by Alabama law student Abe Delnore, responds to this post, which is also discussed here and here:

"I wonder if Rick Garnett's former student--the Bob Jones alumnus--suggests an answer to your student's question.  That is, divine creation not so long ago was considered by some the basis for denying the dignity of some humans.  So while Kant and Rousseau may seem to leave gaping loopholes, it is a historical fact that the divine account has been perverted--and it may be again. 



The alarming implications Glendon reaches from Kant and Rousseau are not conclusions those philosophers reached themselves.  Her characterization of Rousseau's empathy kind of bothers me, actually; his empathy is not a transient emotion.  If Glendon's quarrel is with imaginary Kant-lite (Peter Singer) and Rousseau-lite (?), then she has to deal with the use of Christianity to justify slavery and racism, the Church's centuries of failure to realize the implications of human dignity, etc.  Maybe she does; I haven't read this essay of Glendon's.



I also don't see why she believes we must choose among accounts of human dignity's origin.  Surely if God did create humans with inherent dignity, then what Kant and Rousseau noticed is also true.  Kant and Rousseau made powerful arguments one should not abandon lightly."