Letters: Where to find the best negroni

Free thinking

Sir: Your leading article (‘Article of faith’, 14 December) appears to have forgotten the connection between rationalism and natural rights. Liberals indeed think in utilitarian, Rousseauian and what they consider ‘rationalistic’ terms. But what about the logic of natural rights that come from John Rawls or Robert Nozick? The Declaration of Independence, the political culmination of Enlightenment-era thought on reason and rights, was in large part the product of irreligious minds. This document has been the model for a free society for centuries.

And what about Milton Friedman’s argument for a free society? That nobody can know with certainty what sin is; therefore, no one can coerce anybody into following his vision of whom to pray to, what one can or cannot say, or what to buy and sell. Persuade, sure, but never coerce. This is precisely a negative argument; its premise is the lack of knowledge, rather than a claim from providence.

I do not mean to downplay the cultural or historical role of Christianity in western civilisation. I simply write for those of us who do not feel completely right with the idea of leaving the principle of liberty to a leap of faith.

Maxim Nikiforov

Canberra, Australia

Broad church

Sir: A.N. Wilson (‘Church ruins’, 14 December) is right to have doubts about whether congregations in historic Christian denominations are holding up. While some larger churches and cathedrals are bucking the trend, the overall picture is one of terminal decline. However, we should not despair. Three hundred years ago, the church was in an even more parlous state. In 1740, there were only six people at the Easter Day service at St Paul’s Cathedral, every sixth house in London was a gin shop, and alcoholism, poverty, violence, murder and family breakdown were rife, as Hogarth’s prints so vividly depict.