Philosophy Now Forum

Article 18
[ARTICLE 18 Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Taken in isolation this UN Right is nonsense, unless it is advocating social chaos.
It can only make ethical sense if it is related to, limited by, or modified by other ‘rights’and duties.
Even then the drift of UN and other rights appears to be towards that of society as a globalised aggregate of people, implicitly having the right to go almost anywhere and do almost anything.
That is certainly opposed to a totalitarian system, no doubt kept in order by AI.
It is also opposed or contradictory to a democracy based on the community at various levels. Community that must include the natural world.
Ethical philosophy is not an academic vanity. It denotes the way communities behave internally and between themselves, within the natural world.
Technology and in particular AI, together with overpopulation and the sacking of nature, and global warming, have made it imperative to decide what kind of communities we must be.

I'm not sure if you are confusing "freedom of thought" with "freedom of action"?

The Article you reference deals with freedom of religious belief. I think it is fairly obvious that if I choose to change my religious beliefs, it is extremely unlikely to lead to social chaos, at least in the modern world.

Of course, if my conversion is sufficiently radical, and involves so many others that the survival of the state is put in question (as was the case with Jesus' ministry) - that is a different matter. But that is not what Article 18 is talking about. That would be an issue for each individual state to deal with in accordance with its own laws and customs. Article 18 deals with the simple individual freedom to choose your own religious beliefs.