Religion

Adam Smith on Religion and the Rules of Morality

Buddha and his “Ten Commandments”

Buddha on Wandering Rightly in the World

Captain John Clarke asserts the right of all men to vote in the formation of a new constitution by right of the property they have in themselves (1647)

David Hume argues that “love of liberty” in some individuals often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of “ignorance, corruption, and bondage” (1757)

Edward Bellarmine grapples with the problem of a subject’s obedience to kings or popes (1610)

Elisha Williams on the unalienable right every person has to think and judge for themselves (1744)

Frederick Douglass on Religion and Slavery

In Ecclesiastes, there is the call to plant, to love, to live, and to work and then to enjoy the fruits of all one’s labors (3rd Century BC)

Job rightly wants to know why he, “the just upright man is laughed to scorn” while robbers prosper (6thC BC)

John Milton on Satan’s Reign in Hell

Lao Tzu and the Tao of laissez-faire (6thC BC)

Lao Tzu discusses how “the great sages” (or wise advisors) protect the interests of the prince and thus “prove to be but guardians in the interest of the great thieves” (600 BC)

Luke, Taxes, and the Birth of Jesus (85)

Milton on Eve’s discovery of the benefits of the division of labor in the Garden of Eden (1667)

Noah Webster on the resilience of common religious practices in the face of attempts by the state to radically change them (1794)

Pierre Bayle begins his defence of religious toleration with this appeal that the light of nature, or Reason, should be used to settle religious differences and not coercion (1708)

St. Augustine states that kingdoms without justice are mere robberies, and robberies are like small kingdoms; but large Empires are piracy writ large (5th C)

St. John, private property, and the Parable of the Wolf and the Good Shepherd (2ndC AD)

St. Thomas Aquinas discusses the three conditions for a just war (1265-74)

The 1st Day of Christmas: Jan Huss' Christmas letters and his call for peace on earth (1412)

The 3rd Day of Christmas: Erasmus stands against war and for peace on earth (16th century)

The 6th Day of Christmas: Vicesimus Knox on the Christian religion and peace on earth (1793)

The evangelist Luke “on earth peace, good will toward men” (1st century)

The Psalmist laments that he lives in a Society which “hateth peace” and cries out “I am for peace: but when I speak they are for war” (1000 BC)

Thomas Aquinas on why the law should not punish imperfect men for practising vices which do not harm others (1274)

William Emerson, in his oration to commemorate the Declaration of Independence, reminded his listeners of the “unconquerable sense of liberty” which Americans had (1802)

William Penn on property as one of the three fundamental rights all men have (1679)