[Dialogue] Truce on Religion

[FacilitationFla at aol.com]

A  Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion  
By _NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per) ,  NYTIMES 
If  God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can’t help wondering why  she doesn’
t pull out a thunderbolt and strike down Richard  Dawkins. 
Or,  at least, crash the Web site of _www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com_ 
(http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com/) . That’s a snarky site that notes that while 
people  regularly credit God for curing cancer or other ailments, amputees 
never seem to  enjoy divine intervention. 
“If  God were answering the prayers of amputees to regenerate their lost 
limbs, we  would be seeing amputated legs growing back every day,” the Web site 
declares,  adding: “It would appear, to an unbiased observer, that God is 
singling out  amputees and purposefully ignoring them.” 
That  site is part of an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheist 
offensive led  in part by Professor Dawkins — the Oxford scientist who is author 
of the new best  seller “The God Delusion.” It’s a militant, in-your-face 
brand of atheism that  he and others are proselytizing for.  
He  counsels readers to imagine a world without religion and conjures his own 
 glimpse: “Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch 
 hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, 
no  Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as ‘Christ-killers,’ 
no  Northern Ireland ‘troubles,’ no ‘honor killings,’ no shiny-suited  
bouffant-haired televangelists fleecing gullible people of their  money.” 
Look  elsewhere on the best-seller list and you find an equally acerbic 
assault on  faith: Sam Harris’s “Letter to a Christian Nation.” Mr. Harris mocks  
conservative Christians for opposing abortion, writing: “20 percent of all  
recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage. There is an obvious truth here that  
cries out for acknowledgment: if God exists, He is the most prolific 
abortionist  of all.” 
The  number of avowed atheists is tiny, with only 1 to 2 percent of Americans 
 describing themselves in polls as atheists. But about 15 percent now say 
that  they are not affiliated with any religion, and this vague category is 
sometimes  described as the fastest-growing “religious group” in America today  
(some surveys back that contention, while others don’t). 
Granted,  many Americans may not yet be willing to come out of the closet and 
acknowledge  their irreligious views. In polls, more than 90 percent of 
Americans have said  that they would be willing to vote for a woman, a Jew or a 
black, and 79 percent  would be willing to vote for a gay person. But at last 
count, only 37 percent  would consider voting for an atheist.  
Such  discrimination on the basis of (non) belief is insidious and 
intolerant, and  undermines our ability to have far-reaching discussions about faith and 
 politics. Mr. Harris, for example, makes some legitimate policy points, such 
as  criticism of conservative Christians who try to block research on stem 
cells  because of their potential to become humans. 
“Almost  every cell in your body is a potential human being, given our recent 
advances in  genetic engineering,” notes Mr. Harris. “Every time you scratch 
your nose, you  have committed a Holocaust of potential human beings.” 
Yet  the tone of this Charge of the Atheist Brigade is often just as 
intolerant — and  mean. It’s contemptuous and even ... a bit fundamentalist.   
“These  writers share a few things with the zealous religionists they oppose, 
such as a  high degree of dogmatism and an aggressive rhetorical style,” says 
John Green of  the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “Indeed, one could 
speak of a secular  fundamentalism that resembles religious fundamentalism. 
This may be one of those  cases where opposites converge.” 
Granted,  religious figures have been involved throughout history in the 
worst kinds of  atrocities. But as Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot show, so 
have  atheists. 
Moreover,  for all the slaughters in the name of religion over the centuries, 
there is  another side of the ledger. Every time I travel in the poorest 
parts of  Africa, I see missionary hospitals that are the  only source of 
assistance to desperate people. God may not help amputees sprout  new limbs, but 
churches do galvanize their members to support soup kitchens,  homeless shelters 
and clinics that otherwise would not exist. Religious  constituencies have 
pushed for more action on AIDS, malaria, sex trafficking and  Darfur’s genocide, 
and believers often give  large proportions of their incomes to charities that 
are a lifeline to the  neediest.  
Now  that the Christian Right has largely retreated from the culture wars, let
’s hope  that the Atheist Left doesn’t revive them. We’ve suffered enough 
from religious  intolerance that the last thing the world needs is irreligious 
intolerance.  .  
Cynthia N.  Vance
Strategics International Inc.
8245 SW 116 Terrace
Miami, Florida,  33156
305-378-1327; fax 305-378-9178
_http://members.aol.com/facilitationfla_ 
(http://members.aol.com/facilitationfla) 

Want  to build your own facilitation skills? 
Want to meet facilitators from around  the world and in your own backyard? 
Mark your calendar for the International  Assoc. of Facilitators Conference 
2007 
Portland, Oregon -- March 8-10, 2007.  See _www.iaf-world.org_ 
(http://www.iaf-world.org/) 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20061203/45a22cbd/attachment-0001.html