Conscience and Its Enemies ─ Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism

“Brilliant . . . Should be required reading.” —Commentary

“I don’t think we get better, or more consequential, commentary on the modern crisis.” —Washington Times

“Puts George’s highly burnished philosophical and constitutional learning on full display. . . . [George] speaks for a sizable number of conscientious objectors to America’s ruling liberal secularism.” —New York Times Book Review

Assaults on religious liberty and traditional morality are growing fiercer. Here, at last, is the counterattack.

This new, revised and updated paperback edition of the acclaimed Conscience and Its Enemies showcases the talents that have made Robert P. George one of America’s most acclaimed and influential thinkers. Here George explodes the myth that the secular elite represents the voice of reason. In fact, he shows, it is on the elite side of the cultural divide where the prevailing views frequently are nothing but articles of faith.Conscience and Its Enemies reveals the bankruptcy of these too often smugly held orthodoxies while presenting powerfully reasoned arguments for classical virtues.

In defending what James Madison called the “sacred rights of conscience”—rights for which government shows frightening contempt—George grapples with today’s most controversial issues: same-sex marriage, abortion, genetic manipulation, euthanasia and assisted suicide, religion in politics, judicial activism, and more. His brilliantly argued essays rely not on theological claims or religious authority but on established scientific facts and a philosophical tradition that extends back to Plato and Aristotle.

Conscience and Its Enemies elevates our national debates. It sets forth powerful arguments that secular liberals are unaccustomed to hearing—and that embattled defenders of traditional morality so often fail to marshal. It also lays out the principles and arguments for rebuilding a moral order.