Ed Hudgins Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Can You Love God and Ayn Rand? By Jennifer Anju Grossman Ayn Rand’s most adamant axiom forms the foundation of her Objectivist philosophy: “Contradictions do not exist.” But what about the contradiction between her philosophy and religion—one grounded in reason, the other in faith? Put another way: Can you love “Atlas Shrugged” and the Bible? Rand and Objectivist scholars say no, yet many of her followers disagree, and they should still be welcomed with open arms. During the 2012 campaign, then-vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan told Fox News that he “really enjoyed” Rand’s novels” and admired the writer’s ability to highlight the pitfalls of socialism. But the current House speaker, a practicing Roman Catholic, described Objectivism as “something that I completely disagree with. It’s an atheistic philosophy.” It’s a shame that Rand’s secularism prompts some to reject the rest of Objectivism, which she described as a philosophy based on “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”… (Continue reading here.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Bissell Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 Ed, this is all that the link would show, unless you subscribe to WSJ, which I didn't want to do at this time. Jennifer is the new CEO of The Atlas Society, right? Does this mean that TAS is dropping its atheistic stance? Is rejection of the concept of "God" no longer one of the Basic Principles of Objectivism? REB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jts Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 On the question of whether it is possible to love both God and Ayn Rand, I assume consistently as opposed to inconsistently: Draw circle C, the set of all ideas in Christianity. Draw circle O, the set of all ideas in Objectivism. Draw them so they overlap. The overlapping area is the set of all ideas common to both Christianity and Objectivism. This might be a null set or not. If it is not a null set then maybe you can love God to some extent and love Ayn Rand to some extent. And at the same time maybe you can hate both of them to some extent. Maybe I should reword that without reference to God or Ayn Rand: It is probably possible to love part of Christianity and to hate part of it and to love part of Objectivism and to hate part of it, all 4 at the same time without being inconsistent. If you did that, you probably would be neither Christian nor Objectivist and you probably would be hated by both Christians and Objectivists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted December 3, 2016 Share Posted December 3, 2016 I love intelligence intelligently used and represented so that takes in both books. "Both God and Ayn Rand" is an attempt to ad hominem one's way into a dubious supposition. The fact is these books need to be dipped into the vat of serious criticism and that goes for Her and Him. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted December 3, 2016 Share Posted December 3, 2016 On 11/14/2016 at 0:26 PM, Ed Hudgins said: Can You Love God and Ayn Rand? By Jennifer Anju Grossman Ayn Rand’s most adamant axiom forms the foundation of her Objectivist philosophy: “Contradictions do not exist.” But what about the contradiction between her philosophy and religion—one grounded in reason, the other in faith? Put another way: Can you love “Atlas Shrugged” and the Bible? Rand and Objectivist scholars say no, yet many of her followers disagree, and they should still be welcomed with open arms. During the 2012 campaign, then-vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan told Fox News that he “really enjoyed” Rand’s novels” and admired the writer’s ability to highlight the pitfalls of socialism. But the current House speaker, a practicing Roman Catholic, described Objectivism as “something that I completely disagree with. It’s an atheistic philosophy.” It’s a shame that Rand’s secularism prompts some to reject the rest of Objectivism, which she described as a philosophy based on “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”… (Continue reading here.) It depends on which god. One can love Einstein's god and Rand. One can love Aristotle's god and Rand. It might be difficult to love St. Paul's god and Rand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moralist Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 On 12/2/2016 at 1:10 PM, jts said: On the question of whether it is possible to love both God and Ayn Rand, I assume consistently as opposed to inconsistently: Draw circle C, the set of all ideas in Christianity. Draw circle O, the set of all ideas in Objectivism. Draw them so they overlap. The overlapping area is the set of all ideas common to both Christianity and Objectivism. This might be a null set or not. If it is not a null set then maybe you can love God to some extent and love Ayn Rand to some extent. And at the same time maybe you can hate both of them to some extent. Maybe I should reword that without reference to God or Ayn Rand: It is probably possible to love part of Christianity and to hate part of it and to love part of Objectivism and to hate part of it, all 4 at the same time without being inconsistent. If you did that, you probably would be neither Christian nor Objectivist and you probably would be hated by both Christians and Objectivists. There is an obvious overlap of the God and Rand circles... and the common area can be defined as behavioral. The end product of both God and Rand is doing what's morally right. I'm a behaviorist rather than a doctrinaire so I have no problem with loving both consistently. And as far as one being faith and the other being reason... both are reason as far as I'm concerned. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 On 11/14/2016 at 0:26 PM, Ed Hudgins said: Can You Love God and Ayn Rand? By Jennifer Anju Grossman Ayn Rand’s most adamant axiom forms the foundation of her Objectivist philosophy: “Contradictions do not exist.” But what about the contradiction between her philosophy and religion—one grounded in reason, the other in faith? Put another way: Can you love “Atlas Shrugged” and the Bible? Rand and Objectivist scholars say no, yet many of her followers disagree, and they should still be welcomed with open arms. During the 2012 campaign, then-vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan told Fox News that he “really enjoyed” Rand’s novels” and admired the writer’s ability to highlight the pitfalls of socialism. But the current House speaker, a practicing Roman Catholic, described Objectivism as “something that I completely disagree with. It’s an atheistic philosophy.” It’s a shame that Rand’s secularism prompts some to reject the rest of Objectivism, which she described as a philosophy based on “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”… (Continue reading here.) The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Socialism is my enemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moralist Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 20 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Socialism is my enemy. Bob, you're one of the biggest collectivists here. You'd be nothing without your big fat liberal socialist government bureaucracy taking care of you. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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