Modern Age - Summer 2017 - 13

The Threat of Free Speech in the University

was widely accepted that the free expression of dissenting views
is important in all areas of inquiry and not just in the natural sciences. To quote Mill's now famous words:
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that
it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those
who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what
is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier
impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

That is fine, so far as it goes; but what if it is not truth that people
are seeking, but some other benefit, such as membership, solidarity, or consolation? Is freedom of opinion the same benefit in
the search for consolation as it is in the search for truth? Clearly
not. Religions, Durkheim taught us, offer membership, and that
is their social function. They fill the void in the human heart with
the mystical presence of the group, and if they do not provide this
benefit they will wither and die, like the religions of the ancient
world during the Hellenistic period. It is in the nature of a religion
to protect itself from rival groups and the heresies that promote
them. It is therefore not an accident that heretics are marginalized, murdered, or burned at the stake.
Of course, we Christians no longer engage in those practices,
since we have learned the art of putting our religion on hold
when dealing with those who do not share it, thereby clearing
as much space as possible for the free discussion of alternatives.
But this ongoing compromise, between religion and free inquiry,
is foreign to many other worldviews. We now have living among
us people who believe that errors of religion are punishable by
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Modern Age - Summer 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Summer 2017

Contents
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Modern Age - Summer 2017 - Contents
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