Atheism is a religion and it is dominating public schools, says a British philosopher who will speak at Vanderbilt University.
Roger Scruton will be the fourth and last speaker in the “Democracy and Moral Conviction” lecture series, which has explored the degree to which morality and religion should influence political decisions.
Scruton will speak at noon on Monday, April 16, in the Renaissance Room of Vanderbilt Law School. The public is invited to the free event.
The lecture, “Freedom of Religion,” will be recorded for podcasting on VUCast, the Vanderbilt News Service website, at www.vanderbilt.edu/news. The talk will be followed by a question and answer session.
“Today, the state has intruded into civil society in a way that the founders would never have envisaged,” Scruton says. “The state does not merely fund the majority of schools: It controls them. Hence the ‘no establishment’ clause is interpreted as obliging the state to chase religion out of the institutions of society.
“Having absorbed those institutions, the state fumigates them against the religious bug. But it does this ‘religiously,’ seeking out all the nooks and crannies where religion might take hold, and squirting them with ideological disinfectant. And because the state controls the institutions where orthodoxies arise – schools and universities – it is in effect making an establishment of religion. The religion is atheism; but an atheism pursued with a kind of vindictive vehemence that has all the marks of faith.”
Scruton is the author of The Meaning of Conservatism and Arguments for Conservatism. He has also penned novels, operas and worked as a journalist and editor and is the founder of Horsell’s Farm Enterprises, a public relations consulting firm.
Media Contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu