How is it virtuous and praiseworthy in the least…
… to allow the powers that be—the preachers, politicians, and other snake oil salesmen—to tell you the difference between right and wrong?
How is this not the absolute renunciation of one’s personhood?
How is this not the cowardly abdication of one’s power and responsibility?
How is this not the total rejection of one’s freedom, dignity, and humanity?
Nice, Frank. Likewise for the previous parts. Two Hitch quotes suggest themselves:
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. (Christopher Hitchens)
The original sin, so to say…the problem in the first place, is the belief on the part of this church, that it does possess a truth that we don’t have and it does have a God-given right, a warrant, a mandate of Heaven, to tell other people what to do, not just in their public, but in their private lives; and until that has changed, until that fantastic and sinister and non-founded claim is changed, these crimes will go on repeating themselves. (Christopher Hitchens, Intelligence Squared, 2015)
Your resonance is heartening, David… and the addition of some tasty Hitchens more than welcome. A toast to moral autonomy! 🍻