I like what you wrote but think that liberalism is part of an older tradition that attempts to conquer nature (including death) and human nature. There was an optimism with modernity that through reason alone (science) man can solve his physical and social problems. Man didn’t need to be subject to the vagaries and whims of God or nature. Man would be able to master his environment and correct his problems. Ancient thinkers like Plato said it couldn’t be done — create the perfect society — that man should not attempt such a proud undertaking and that the perfect society (city state) was only possible in words. Further, Plato believed fortune or accident conspired against it. In contrast, Machiavelli, the modern, said fortune was a woman that needed to be slapped around and controlled by man. In other words, man could raise himself up through unaided reason. Francis Bacon followed suit with the belief that science would “ease man’s estate.” Modernism, defined as this turning way from ancient wisdom, was unleashed on the world with this bold project: conquer nature through science for the benefit of man. Reason became almost a god (the most authoritative voice) and religion, especially Christianity, was relegated to superstition. The men in the white coats (scientists) now dominated the men in the black coats (priests). But the aim of the two men were the same: perfection. The scientists thought they could create perfection on this planet through scientific discoveries; the priests said it existed once (the Garden of Eden) and would never appear again because man was essentially a fallen creature. The priests believe that sin = death, that perfection exists in the next world with God.
Science has given us many wondrous things, many things that can used for good and evil. We have miraculous cures and drugs from science that make us live longer and enjoy life more and, yet, we have WMD and 100 million murdered in the last century — the result of “scientific” communism (Marx thought he was doing science) — in an attempt to correct our social problems. But the question remains can science conquer death? It can’t show man’s soul under a microscope or show God in the sky with a telescope. Because it can’t many people will refuse to believe in God. They see no value in the wisdom or knowledge of the Bible. They want to believe in power of science of conquer death. If man can live forever he has no need of God, or justice or virtues or almost anything. He will have no need for humanity. Man will have become God.