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‘Theophobia’ Afflicting Legal Academics

Posted Jun 20, 2008 10:37 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A legal blogger notes a malady afflicting law professors that is characterized by irrational fear of, or intense discomfort around, religious beliefs.

New York University law professor Roderick Hills calls the affliction “theophobia” in a post on PrawfsBlawg.

Hills began thinking about the issue after he discussed a mutual friend with a former colleague. “The latter was astonished by our mutual friend’s Christianity,” Hills writes. “ ‘What’s up with that?!’ he exclaimed, expressing bewilderment and even nervousness at the thought that a well-regarded—indeed, by academic standards, famous—professor could believe in the existence and beneficence of an omniscient and omnipotent God. It was as if our Christian friend had declared that the world was flat or was dabbling in alchemy.”

Comments

1.

Gary
Jun 20, 2008 12:05 PM CST

It afflicts many more people than just law professors.  Most people on the left of the political spectrum (journalists, academics, etc.) just can’t figure it out. Funny thing is, the joke is on them.

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2.

Reinero
Jun 20, 2008 2:08 PM CST

Seems to me this affects all of academia

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3.

Mike
Jun 20, 2008 2:29 PM CST

Academics want facts from which conclusions can be logically deduced.  Religion lacks in such facts.  Intelligent Design is a recent effort in this area, but it’s still hard to see how ID proves or suggests that specifically the Christian God, as described in the Bible, is extant.

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4.

Ephesus and Perpetua
Jun 20, 2008 3:51 PM CST

I highly recommend Ben Stein’s recent movie which pierces the ideological oxygen deficient fog that engulfs the Left in academia (roughly 90 % of professors) on the issue of I.D., and why they become apoplectic, if not catatonic, at the mere mention of intelligent design in the classroom.  Stein shreds the incoherent and ethically dishonest rationalizations by many administrators and academic heads of departmnets at “elite” universities about termination or refusal to renew contracts of respected and highly credentialed scientists/colleagues who have the intellectual honesty, ethical integrity, and courage to suggest that asking whether I.D. is “extant” is both legitimate and intelligent. What is “extant” is the new McCarthism which emanates from the academic thought police of the Left.

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5.

PamA
Jun 20, 2008 6:08 PM CST

I think all “thoughts” should be allowed, but when the religiously indoctrinated either fail to acknowledge other possibilities or fail to see that their logic is flawed, they should not be in positions where they can push their religious zealotry on other, equally valid thinkers of equally valid thoughts. Academics should be especially sensitive to the validity of all possible outcomes.

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6.

df
Jun 21, 2008 1:05 AM CST

Hmm, some more theophobia on here…

There have been “great thinkers” who are atheists, and who were religious (I would guess more of the latter, but that’s another discussion). Those who equate religious belief with being indoctrinated or a zealot are themselves displaying a form of zealotry and the “theophobia” referred to. Whether someone is religious or atheist makes no difference to teaching chemistry, or English literature, or any number of subjects. In a few areas it might make a difference (e.g. teaching evolution in school, obviously, but not biology generally).

For that matter, I’ve known atheists who were superstitious or believed in “luck”...

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7.

mrj
Jun 21, 2008 8:26 AM CST

Unfortunately, there are those who loudly call themselves “Christian” and then proclaim beliefs that America was founded in large part to defeat Islam (Rod Parsley) or that the US Constitution is based entirely on their interpretation of the Ten Commandments.  (I have yet to find a Biblical basis for Article 1, Section 8, or the Article 6 prohibition of religious tests, for example.) 

When such “Christians” denounce other faiths, and even other Christian denominations (e.g., John Hagee’s denunciations of Roman Catholicism), and want the government to preach their particular religious beliefs in public schools, I can understand many people having a fear of that brand of “Christianity”.

There are a large number of religious people who share that fear.

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8.

J Edberg
Jun 23, 2008 7:00 AM CST

I have found that law professors “adopt” the religion of the woman they are currently interested in pursuing.  I recall an instance at a New York law instituion a number of years ago where a professor of a certain faith promptly abandoned it to pursue a Lutheran woman, then picked back right up where he started the next semester when a pretty new woman arrived in another Christian faith.  All the while, he was no more Christian than Osama Bin Ladel.

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9.

jbo
Jun 23, 2008 9:56 PM CST

“Seems to me this affects all of academia.”

Reinero - Did it ever occur to you why this is the case? Did you ever wonder why 90% of scientists are atheists?  Did you ever wonder why people who are seriously ill, go to see scientists (M.D.s) rather than faith healers? Science and scientists and academics generally are wary of religion because it is the antithesis of science and reason.

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10.

Mark
Jun 30, 2008 1:00 PM CST

Gary, what joke?  I presume you mean eternal damnation.  So if you could please explain either how eternal damnation is funny, or how those on “the left” are on the wrong side of the truth, please do so.  An attempt at either would be fantastic.  Thanks.

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