Religious Conscientious Exemptions |
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Authors: | Yossi Nehushtan |
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Institution: | (1) School of Law, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK |
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Abstract: | Several possible approaches can be applied by the state when it responds to religious conscientious objections. These approaches
compare the response to religious-conscientious objections with that to non-religious objections. If the content of the objector’s
conscience is significant when deciding to grant conscientious exemptions, three approaches to the practice of granting conscientious
exemptions are possible: First, a non-neutral liberal approach that takes into consideration the content of the conscience
but not its religiosity as such; second, a pro-religious approach; and third, an anti-religious approach. This paper contends
that the non-neutral liberal approach and the pro-religious approach should be rejected in favor of an anti-religious approach
to granting conscientious exemptions. The proposed anti-religious approach is as follows: (1) unjustified intolerance should
not be tolerated; (2) empirical evidence links religion and intolerance – that is, people’s responses to measures of religion
and intolerance are closely related; (3) theoretical evidence links (some) religions and intolerance; and (4) the religiosity
of conscience gives the state a reason to refuse to grant conscientious exemptions. |
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Keywords: | |
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