Habermas and religious pluralism

This article has some comments on the issue of Habermas and religious pluralism "Political philosopher Jurgen Habermas has remarked of religious beliefs that they require "striking cognitive dissonances," since, as he puts it, "the complex life circumstances in modern pluralistic societies are normatively compatible only with a strict universalism in which the same respect is demanded for everybody — be they Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist, believers or nonbelievers." So their various "truths" are self-evidently in difficulty, undermined by the very conditions of their continuance.

But religious followers have it easy: After all, many religious folk are not in "modern pluralistic societies" and so can remain undisturbed by Habermas's paradox. But even if they are, they have many bulwarks against crisis: the confidence of a way of life that has been around for centuries; the support of a community of believers; the leadership of charismatic figures; above all confidence in some kind of god or spirit that speaks directly to their situation, both individually and collectively. For many, of course, there is the additional consolation of an afterlife.

By comparison, the human rights believer is lonely and vulnerable. They seek Heaven on earth for all, not just (or even mainly) for themselves or the chosen few. And there is no pre-modern refuge: It is firmly and only within "the complex life circumstances in modern pluralistic societies" that they must ply their trade. The genuine human rights believer cannot thrive outside pluralism."

link via here