A Recent book written by Professor Richard Trigg, called ‘Equality, Freedom and Religion’, has caused some concern in both the religious and secular communities.
Professor Trigg writes that: “religious freedom in the US and Europe is under threat from the courts” and is “one of the most basic rights in all the key human rights documents”.
He goes on to assert that this kind of freedom is under threat as it becomes more and more private and cannot be seen in the public. He points out that religious freedom is one part of democracy that should be respected.
Roger Trigg is a Professor at the University of Warwick and Academic Director of the Study of Religion in Public Life at Kellogg College, Oxford.
Professor Trigg cited some famous cases of ‘religious discrimination’ that have happened recently and stated that it is an individual’s own rights to decide “whenever they want to worship, whoever they want to worship, or however they want to worship”.
A religious academic at the University of Sussex expressed his agreement with these views.
He stated that the government applies equality unevenly as there are “special rules evoked” against Christian members of society.
He suggested that when the secular value system is in conflict with the Christian one, the latter always loses, and that the next example of this will be gay marriage.
Societies attempt to estrange itself from its religious heritage was something he identified as problematic.
He cited the extreme cases in which groups have tried to form a value-system and social structure, entirely distinctive from its religious counterpart, such as Marxism and the French Revolution. These upheavals resulted in autocracy and disaster, he asserted.
Professor Trigg has also written similar works, such as ‘Religion in the Public Sphere’ and ‘Reality at Risk’, which express similar opinions.
