Thursday, March 10, 2005

Guinness: Unspeakable

In his new book, Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror, Os Guinness writes:

"We must never lose sight of the undeniable fact … [that] more people were killed by secularist regimes in the twentieth century than in all the religious persecutions in Western history, and perhaps in all history.... Whatever our personal views of religion, this statement [that religion is to blame] is simply and factually wrong, and its lazy repetition seriously distorts public debate and endangers democratic freedom. Its root is an unexamined Enlightenment prejudice that simultaneously reduces faith to its functions and recognizes only the worst contributions of faith, not the best—such as the rise of the universities, the development of modern science, the abolition of slavery, and the promotion of human rights."

(HT: Danielle DuRant at RZIM)

You can read an interview with Guinness in the latest issue of CT.