The first two chapters of David Copeland's book, The Idea of a Free Press, have a lot to say about religion and its role in the development of free expression. Copeland writes especially about the religion and an idea he calls "liberty of conscience" in Enlightenment England. But what was the connection between religion and liberty of conscience? How did a belief in God translate into notions of free expression?
Your assignment for this blog post is answer those questions. Do this by writing about 100 words (about 7 or 8 sentences) in which you identify in the reading at least one significant "real world" link between religion and the development of liberty. Beyond identifying that link, explain the significance of that connection on the development of free expression. That is, explain why this link was important.
Read these chapters carefully so that you will have a thoughtful and original short essay. We will be discussing these posts on Monday. See you then.
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6 comments:
Michael
Because the ability for man to analyze, critique, and comment on aspects of our lives. It was seen as to infringe on our God-given right to restrict our freedom of expression of those thoughts. Now while this seems as though it should be an obvious choice to allow it, the conflict always arose due to people critiquing and analyzing the government in a poor manner, much like many of the examples in the foreword, their ability to speek their mind was allowed, but it caused varying degrees of harm to the progress of building a nation. This shined light on the inevitability that no nation will ever act entirely as one. There will always be people with a desire to use said “God-given right” to speak out.
Zak Patterson:
I don't think that religion and the development of liberty should coexist necessarily. Religions require a human to obey the will of a higher power and therefore I do not understand how one can truly be libertized under the dictates of religion. I can see how many would credit religion with development of liberty but I think freely expressing oneself is an absolute must for society regardless of any religion. As human beings we have to have the ability to freely express ourselves or there would be little advancement in society. Reasoning results from free-flowing thoughts, an without reasoning we'd all be beating each other up.
Kristina Merkle:
I believe that religion and freedom of speech may not necessarily be able to co-exist with one another. The reason I say this is because of the fact that when you think about religion, you think more about the values that you must/should follow. Freedom of speech is more based on our opinion of what we think. Being able to have that power has given us the opportunity to see other peoples point of view and the idea of being able to except new things into our lives. Where as in religion, if its not part of the religion, it may be looked down upon or not accepted. I guess when you look back though, when people spoke about their religion and what they believed was right, that in a way was an example of freedom of speech.
Barrett Hunter
The only connection between religion and liberty of conscious is a negative one.Although Copeland uses the example of Martin Luther using free speech to stand up against problems with the church, religion usually has the opposite effect on one's liberty and freedom of thought. Religion operates through through concrete guidelines that one must adhere to in becoming apart of the religious group. Although our countries freedom of religion can somewhat add to our liberty but what about countries that are not oo religiously tolerant and the distinction between the church and state does not exist like in the USA. Religion in those countries seeks to inhibit one's individual rights and liberties. Michael's comment about the saying god-given right to speak out brings up a good point. What if we are speaking out against the church? Is it still a god given right?
Maggie Tracy:
Before reading I didn't think a connection could be made between religion and freedom of expression because religion is dictated by doctrines yet after reading the second chapter, it is clear that there is a connection. People wanted to practice religion freely is the same as wanting to be able to speak freely. From wanting to practice religion freely and revolt against the government came the freedom of speech. I however do not believe there is a divine right to say whatever we want, whenever and however we want, but I do believe that everyone should be given a chance to be heard out. A divine right to speak gives people a false impression that what they have to say is right always simply because they said it.
Andrus Rodriguez
Quoting an annonymous writer in Copeland's book, said that one question that we all should be asking is if "we ought to be free, or Slaves in our understandings." That to me is the connection between religion and the Liberty of Conscience. Moving this idea into our modern times, we have to be able to question our government freely and not just take in what they have chosen to give to us as the "gospel truth". Like in Copeland's book, when John Wyclif,a priest, translated the bible for the common to be "Enlightened" or when he exposed the corruptions and over indulgences of the church it was to give light to a problem that could then be resolved. When Nixon's Watergate scandals were published for public knowledge the swift and quick resolution was to end the President's term. In order to humanize this form of expression, is to believe that we were built to be curious on what is happening around us. To think that it can be controled or manipulated is to dehumanize ourselves. And that is how the belief in God is translated into the notions of free expression for the greater good to inform humandkind of their surroundings as a "God-given right."
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