Thread by @Aabhas24

I though to write this thread of rants as many friends try best to put or discard self from the bracket of #Liberals . But do they exactly know what it means to be a Liberal?

I asked this question to many but most had varying, diverging answers.

Most just gave an answer because they did't wished to remain speechless. In the time of now, we have forgotten the art of staying quite if answer is not known to us and we just jump to give an answer by hook or crook.

They did the same.

Of course, you must first know the disease that you are claiming to be suffering from. Symptoms must be known and hence it was my prime objective to learn there definitions.

Then I suggested all of them the steps that I chose to know any subject:
Experiment, Observe and Infer.

But what exactly does Liberalism means?

Let's begin from basic. The Western World had just woken up and tube-light had begin to flicker. And the phase was called "Enlightenment."

They had just woken up from persecuting scientists.

Just to set things in perspective I must tell, that many Rishis of Bharat had already composed treatise on ideas which Western Scientists had just begin to explore.

Though Scientists of West faced a lots of wrath from Church, our Mandirs were place of explorations.

While West had just got done with Crusades, Bharat had just got its massive learning centers destroyed at the hands of Islamic Invaders where contradicting "Sampraday" Traditions based studies happened without violently confronting each other.

Bharat right from beginning had been the epitome of "Freedom of Expression"where diverse Dharmik Traditions coexisted with the idea of"Sahstrartha."

People must not mistake the idea of Diverse Traditions with Multiple Religions. Perhaps we will talk about it some other time.

West always had the confrontational past among the religions, subjugation of Scientific Temperament, issues of slavery and what not?

They had woke (Enlightenment), and as per the directive of Church in the name of discovery, they were out to establish Christian Colonies.

With Protestantism the idea of Liberalism had begun to sprout.

The Church had been separated from State,though the Secular State that Luther saw was essentially Christian in nature. Though it was not supposed to interfere in Church,it was to control unchristian acts.

Soon came the era of the likes of Kant and John Locke. They had began to question the Orthodoxy of Catholics too and with Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" the idea of Liberalism had been laid.

That's the reason why Locke is even considered as father of Modern Liberalism.

But as a curious student of science it became pertinent for me to look into the nature of John Locke and where his ideas were coming from.

Let's take the tourney.

While Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" came in 1689, his "The Reasonableness of Christianity" came in 1695.

If one reads "The Reasonableness of Christianity" she would find that Locke was perfectly convinced that the entire material of the Bible was in agreement with human reason.

Locke believed that the miracles were proof of the divine nature of the biblical message.

One would note that Locke was highly conservative about Bible. & That is the reason why he retained the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures in his philosophy.
The verbal inspiration (or inerrancy) of the Bible reflects strongest protestant orthodoxy.

According to the idea of "verbal inspiration" every word of the Bible was divinely inspired and was thus the authority for one’s faith.

It was just a counter of Catholic Orthodoxy of infallible church with that of an infallible Bible.

Now here is an interesting thing. Although Atheists celebrate Locke, the founder of Modern Liberalism, Locke was absolutely intolerant of Atheists.

He had specially urged the authorities not to tolerate atheism.

In his views, the denial of God's existence would undermine the social order and lead to chaos.

A lots of details about this subject is mentioned in chapter "Tolerating Atheists" of book, God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought"

In fact, the starting of this chapter also lays pointers showing that Locke was actually not in favor of equal rights for women because of Biblical Obligations.

Locke's policies excluded all atheistic varieties of philosophy.

Locke was also completely affirmative about the cosmological argument of Bible and saw it to prove God's existence.

Locke's political thoughts were purely based on Protestant Christian views.

One more book "The Political Thought of John Locke
An Historical Account of the Argument of the 'Two Treatises of Government' by John Dunn" has showcased how Locke was so convinced of Bible's argument for creation and Gods.

Not only this. You can't beat it.

Locke had very strongly advocated a sense of piety out of gratitude to God for giving reason to men.

So this man, the founder of Modern Liberalism was a "pakka" Christian who swears by Bible.

Details in attached paper place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewconten…

There are lots of literature including his own writing which speaks deep Christian influence of Locke.

Few to recommend:
A)John Locke's Politics of Moral Consensus
Book by Greg Forster
B)The Biblical Politics of John Locke by Kim Ian Parker
C)John Locke: Writings on Religion

The book "God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought" tells that Locke had equated natural law with the biblical revelation.

Interestingly Locke had derived the basic notions of his political theory from biblical texts [Genesis 1 & 2 (creation), the Decalogue,the Golden Rule,the teachings of Jesus, & the letters of Paul the Apostle].

These details & lead to primary source are again given in this book.

One should check pages, 22–43, 45–46, 101, 153–58, 195 & 197.

Locke's ideas of freedom had derived from the Bible too.The basic human equality , comes from the theological doctrine of Imago Dei.

Check this complete chapter of above mentioned book.

Now see Locke's derivation of the concept of Liberalism.

Based on the ideas as mentioned above, in his eyes, one of the consequences of the principle of equality was that all humans were created equally free & therefore governments needed the consent of the governed.

According to his ow writing we find that Locke compared the English monarchy's rule over the British people to Adam's rule over Eve in Genesis, which was appointed by God.

Refer "Two Treatises of Government" by Locke, Pages, 17–18, 35, 38.

It was Locke's philosophy that had American Declaration of Independence founding human rights partially based on the biblical belief in creation.

Locke's doctrine which suggested governments to have the consent of the governed is core to Declaration. archive.org/details/declar…