Although I am an academic, I am a classical liberal rather than a radical. To wit, I see liberalism and academia as symbiotic organisms on a Christian host because they could not survive on their own. This contradicts the radical viewpoint of Christian society as infancy and secular society as adulthood (e.g., Derbyshire’s notion that even if the church midwifed science, the church should now go away).
Can secular ideology sustain a community beyond the size of a commune? It is an open question, but I am inclined to answer no. The answer is crucial because Christianity is a thousand-fold better than Islam in permitting liberalism. Catholics even teach their young to seek the truth and to continue to uncover more truths–to be scientists and supreme court justices. Many of these pupils, like me, end up thinking that Catholicism is untrue.
Who will die for liberalism in the first ditch rather than the last? I think history yields the answer: Catholics yes and liberals no.
