Human Rights and Religion

Within the next few weeks, I expect to post a new paper here, titled:  The Morality of Human Rights:  A Nonreligious Ground?  Meanwhile, though, consider this:

"SURPRISINGLY, the Weberian vision of a modernity characterized by 'specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart' applies much more to modern Europe than to present-day America. Europe today is a continent that is peaceful, prosperous, rationally administered by the European Union and thoroughly secular. Europeans may continue to use terms like 'human rights' and 'human dignity,' which are rooted in the Christian values of their civilization, but few of them could give a coherent account of why they continue to believe in such things. The ghost of dead religious beliefs haunts Europe much more than it does America."

--Francis Fukuyama, "Thje Calvinist Manifesto," New York Times Book Review, March 13, 2005, page 35.