Religious Faith and Legal Education

If I understood him correctly -- and if he was correctly quoted -- my dean -- the dean of Cardozo School of Law, a law school that is part of Yeshiva University --, the dean of my law school said that religious faith is incompatible with legal education. Last Friday's issue (June 17, 2005) of the New York Law Journal reported:

Mr. [David] Rudenstine [dean of Cardozo Law School] said that America's law schools have a social responsibility, especially at a time of religious fundamentalism, to foster reasoned debate over the facts and science of such controversial matters. To shirk this role, he suggested, would be to leave the way clear for faith-based organizations to impose "divisive" views.

"Faith challenges the underpinnings of legal education," Mr. Rudenstine declared. "Faith is a willingness to accept belief in things for which we have no evidence, or which runs counter to evidence we have."

He added, "Faith does not tolerate opposing views, does not acknowledge inconvenient facts. Law schools stand in fundamental opposition to this."

Well, that's interesting. But I suppose St. Augustine was not a scholar. Neither was Newton. Nor Maimonides. Perhaps not even A. Einstein.