Ayn Rand=Goebbels and Jack the Ripper

[davann]

One good thing about Lutheran doctrine is that it encourages questioning everything, and accents the personal nature of faith.  Thus, I think a lot of Lutherans actually end up either being "true believers" (in both God and authority) or very dedicated to their own innate ideology.  Mine happened to be individual liberty.

I was raised Lutheran also. No doubt about that questioning stuff and the individuals relation with god. Seems to be core values. It be cool to get some kind of demographics on the amount of libertarians from a Lutheran background compared to a Catholic background.

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

One good thing about Lutheran doctrine is that it encourages questioning everything, and accents the personal nature of faith.  Thus, I think a lot of Lutherans actually end up either being "true believers" (in both God and authority) or very dedicated to their own innate ideology.  Mine happened to be individual liberty.

I was raised Lutheran also. No doubt about that questioning stuff and the individuals relation with god. Seems to be core values. It be cool to get some kind of demographics on the amount of libertarians from a Lutheran background compared to a Catholic background.

Judaism is the same way.  I think religions should focus on their members questioning everything.  Definitely a good strategy.  I'd like to see a similar demographic comparison.  With my first hand observations, Jewish people tend to be either socialists or libertarians as well.  Much like what WTFK said about Lutherans.

[Cognitive Dissident]

Martin Luther, of course, got a lot of credit for The Reformation, but I think it's no accident that The Enlightenment seems to include The Reformation as a huge feature.  Of course, another huge feature was the scientific method, and another huge feature was classical liberal government (there were others, such as movable type, which Luther famously exploited in producing the Gutenberg Bible.)

If you think about it, they're all intertwined.  Luther did not mean to be excommunicated and start "protestant" christianity, but rather to reform the church.  Classical liberal government is of course a reformation of a sort too, and certainly the scientific method is a continual reformation of observation and the ideal response to it.

I think that's a major way liberty, science and (oddly enough) religion can be related.  The skeptical approach that says "give me a reason to believe as you, but don't force your way on me," (this is not to contradict the business about the Holy Spirit, which is beyond the scope of this) and it seems to merge that whole enlightenment discussion and (at least, classical liberal) thoughts on liberty.

Back to Luther, though, you can't get a lot more individualist and civilly disobedient than to stand at the Diet of Worms, threatened with perhaps torture or the death penalty (and probably would have been if not "kidnapped" by Prince Philip and protected for his remaining life), refusing to recant your personal beliefs, which you believe you've backed by the Bible (think: Constitution; think: Natural Rights; think: that which cannot be justly or wisely contradicted):

"Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen."  

This is individual rights stuff; the right to believe and teach as you conscientiously determine is "The Truth..." and if it's not the truth, it's still your right to believe and teach it, and it's someone else's right to contradict you and provide his own evidence.

WRT Judaism, I've heard similar things said of it to that of Lutheran education, and I've seen enough of it to recognize that there may be truth to that.

That's either brilliant, or I've had too much medicine to type shit like this, or somewhere in between.  It's not original--it's basically what I learned in one of my civics classes when we studied The Enlightenment, enhanced by my earlier religious education.  I guess I was lucky I didn't get the typical left-wing spiel from college.

[Peppermint Pig]

Ridiculous article. It Godwin'd itself.

[TimeLady Victorious]

Ayn Rand was a legendary cunt.