This provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles
in political philosophy and constitutional theory--why is religion
singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public
discourse? Why, for example, can a religious soup kitchen get an
exemption from zoning laws in order to expand its facilities to
better serve the needy, while a secular soup kitchen with the same
goal cannot? Why is a Sikh boy permitted to wear his ceremonial
dagger to school while any other boy could be expelled for packing
a knife? Why are religious obligations that conflict with the law
accorded special toleration while other obligations of conscience
are not?
"In Why Tolerate Religion?," Brian Leiter argues that the
reasons have nothing to do with religion, and that Western
democracies are wrong to single out religious liberty for special
legal protections. He offers new insights into what makes a claim
of conscience distinctively "religious," and draws on a wealth of
examples from America, Europe, and elsewhere to highlight the
important issues at stake. With philosophical acuity, legal
insight, and wry humor, Leiter shows why our reasons for tolerating
religion are not specific to religion but apply to all claims of
conscience, and why a government committed to liberty of conscience
is not required by the principle of toleration to grant exemptions
to laws that promote the general welfare.
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