William O. Douglas — 1898 – 1980
Former Supreme Court Justice of the United States
Book — Freedom of the Mind
Wm. O. Douglas was the longest serving SCOTUS Justice in US history. He was remembered by TIME magazine as “the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court.” The quote above demonstrates that. Wm. O. Douglas also demonstrated his lack of concern for truth in his life as he burned through three marriages before finally marrying a fourth time to a woman 46 years his junior.
Wm. Douglas wanted to avoid truth in his political system so as to avoid totalitarianism and he says this not realizing what an idiot he is as he is now pursuing the construction of a political systems based on the truth of no truth, sure to end up in the totalitarianism of relativism.
And this is EXACTLY where we have come. Douglas’ vision has won the day.
This statement also ties in for us the inevitable connection between theology and law. All law is a conviction regarding truth. Even the law of relativism is a conviction regarding truth. Truth can never be arrived at without theology. Wm. O. Douglas’ Theology was “man the center,” since Douglas presupposes there is no transcendent God who can provide truth for any political system.