Part II | Outline
Category E | Perspectives
Topic 28 | The right to be wrong
If it is to have any meaning, religious freedom must mean that we as human beings have the right to make choices concerning our own beliefs. This means we have the right to be wrong. This is true even if we are wrong in matters of conscience, including matters of religious truth, and even at the peril of our own soul.
Key ideas
- Personal protections of religious freedom. Becket Fund founder Kevin Seamus Hasson explains that “[religious] freedom for all is guaranteed by the truth about each of us: Our common humanity entitles us to freedom—within broad limits—to follow what we believe to be true as our consciences say we must, even if our consciences are mistaken.” Thus, religious freedom gives us broad freedom to hold, reject, act on, not act on, share, and adjust our beliefs—whether correct or incorrect—in a continually liminal space of potential progression.
- Paradox of religious freedom. The right to religious freedom requires us to respect others’ religious freedom even when we are sure they are wrong, since they too enjoy the right to be wrong. Law and religion scholar W. Cole Durham, Jr., calls this reciprocal duty the “paradox of religious freedom.”
Clarifications
- Indifferentism. Religious freedom does not imply indifference to the truth, nor does it imply that the truth does not matter. Most serious defenses of religious freedom include a corollary that as human beings we have an obligation to seek, pursue, advocate for, and try to live in accordance with truth.
- Relativism. Religious freedom does not imply that truth is relative to particular situations or circumstances. To the contrary, it implies that important truths extend beyond specific situations or contexts.
- Personalism. Religious freedom does not imply that truth is simply a matter of personal preference (that your truth is true for you but not for me). There may be multiple perspectives on a single truth, but truth is not reducible to our own point of view.