Alarming Thought for the Day by the Reverend Angela Tilby on Radio 4 this morning.
Alarming because in her attack on the philosopher Ayn Rand she told the BBC audience that the religious education she (Angela Tilby) personally received when at school taught "equality".
I am not a priest, but I do not know of any part of the Bible where equality is the recommended dogma for life on this earth, so despite Angela Tilby's canonical elevation one has the unsettling feeling that here is yet another Anglican priest who does not seem to know the Scriptures.
Also the Reverend Tilby, in discussing Ayn Rand, failed to mention that the Russian-born philosopher was an atheist from a Jewish cultural background, and therefore whatever her philosophical outlook it was always unlikely to have been a perfect match with Anglicanism.
Ayn Rand experienced at first hand a socialist society (in Soviet Russia) and knew far more about the practical and lethal implementation of "equality" than the Reverend Angela Tilby, in her rarefied Oxbridge world, ever will - there was no acknowledgement of this in Rev Tilby's broadcast.
This is not to defend Ayn Rand's Objectivism per se - an atheist philosopher cannot see more than a partial glimpse of the truth about society ("if you turn your back on the light you will follow a shadow").
This is to defend her cogent philosophy against what can only be described as an ignorant and opportunist attack (albeit an ignorant attack expressed in well-modulated Oxbridge tones).
Alarming because in her attack on the philosopher Ayn Rand she told the BBC audience that the religious education she (Angela Tilby) personally received when at school taught "equality".
I am not a priest, but I do not know of any part of the Bible where equality is the recommended dogma for life on this earth, so despite Angela Tilby's canonical elevation one has the unsettling feeling that here is yet another Anglican priest who does not seem to know the Scriptures.
Also the Reverend Tilby, in discussing Ayn Rand, failed to mention that the Russian-born philosopher was an atheist from a Jewish cultural background, and therefore whatever her philosophical outlook it was always unlikely to have been a perfect match with Anglicanism.
Ayn Rand experienced at first hand a socialist society (in Soviet Russia) and knew far more about the practical and lethal implementation of "equality" than the Reverend Angela Tilby, in her rarefied Oxbridge world, ever will - there was no acknowledgement of this in Rev Tilby's broadcast.
This is not to defend Ayn Rand's Objectivism per se - an atheist philosopher cannot see more than a partial glimpse of the truth about society ("if you turn your back on the light you will follow a shadow").
This is to defend her cogent philosophy against what can only be described as an ignorant and opportunist attack (albeit an ignorant attack expressed in well-modulated Oxbridge tones).
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