Posted by Jason on April 01, 19103 at 14:24:15:

In Reply to: none-believers in the letter on toleration posted by katarina on March 07, 19103 at 08:43:05:

in the letter on toleration, locke affords no toleration towards atheists. he claims that atheists have no reason to follow through on their covenants, promises, and oaths, so they should not receive any toleration in civil society. for example, he would deny that an atheist should testify in court because the oath before testifying is meaningless to atheists.

in my opinion, locke is wrong because there are reasons to follow through on your promises that have nothing to do with god or religion. for example, your reputation would suffer and also it is better for everyone if we all keep our promises. Moreover, some deeply religious individuals break their promimses. But in fairness to Locke, we must remember the time period in which he was writing.

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