Nothing could be further from the truth than the idea that the values of liberalism are simply wanly recycled from religion. Replacing sacred truths with common sympathy and shared sentiments or with self-evident propositions; believing in the fallibility of all human beliefs; insisting on skepticism about all claims; making incremental social improvement and the removal of suffering a higher goal than eternal salvation; placing more emphasis on the well-being of the next generation and on the “horizontal” axis of life than on achieving eternal bliss through the “vertical” one—these
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