[Volokh] Ilya Somin: The Secular Right Blog:

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Posted by Ilya Somin:
The Secular Right Blog:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_11_30-2008_12_06.shtml#1228201339


   Some of our readers might be interested in checking out the recently
   established [1]Secular Right blog, which seeks to demonstrate that
   atheism and secularism are compatible with being on the political
   right. Among the contributors are Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan
   Institute (who wrote a [2]much-debated article on atheism and
   conservatism in 2006), John Derbyshire, Walter Olson, and Razib Khan.

   Although one of the four contributors (Olson) is more libertarian than
   conservative, the main focus of the blog seems to be on the latter.
   After all, few doubt that one can be both an atheist and a
   libertarian. Many of the most influential libertarian thinkers of
   modern times were atheists or agnostics (e.g. - Milton Friedman, F.A.
   Hayek, and Ayn Rand). Although there are also some highly religious
   libertarian intellectuals, including some of my co-bloggers here at
   the VC, few if any libertarian theists doubt that an atheist can be
   just as much a libertarian as they are.

   With conservatism, the issue is much more contestable. On balance, I
   think it logically possible for a person to hold conservative views on
   political issues for reasons that have no connection to religion.
   However, many conservatives do seem to believe that there is a close
   connection between their political views and their religious ones;
   some also hold that one can't be a "real" conservative without also
   being religious. Prominent conservative writer Richard John Neuhaus
   wrote a famous 1991 article in First Things, "Can Atheists be Good
   Citizens?" arguing that atheists not only can't be conservative, but
   cannot even be good citizens" at all (unfortunately, I haven't been
   able to find this article online). Of course close connections between
   religion and political ideology can be found elsewhere on the
   political spectrum as well, as witness the example of Marxist
   [3]"liberation theology." In the modern US, however, conservatives are
   more likely to emphasize such connections than either libertarians or
   liberals.

   Ultimately, whether conservatism is compatible with atheism depends to
   some degree on one's definition of "conservative." If to be
   conservative means to hold right-wing positions on various political
   issues, then atheists can be just as conservative as anyone else. If,
   on the other hand, conservatism is defined in part by having a
   religious foundation for one's political views (as Neuhaus, among
   others, contends), then they can't.

References

   1. http://secularright.org/wordpress/?m=200812
   2. http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_chicsuntimes-the_conservative_contradiction.htm
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Theology