Right now (end of the year 2010), an unholy war is ravaging
countries like the United States of America and England. Atheists known now
as "new atheists" are attacking religions in all its guises. Some religions
are fighting back. Who started all this? Like with all human fights, it is
pretty hard to know who started it after sometime into war. And the fact is
that atheists have, arguably for millennia, been attacked by "religion" (that
is, by some religions and by some religious people). Who can benefit – win
– from all of this situation? It is hard to tell. What is not hard to tell
is who loses: We All.
That is why I think this one, like so many others prior to this, is an unholy
war. People on both sides are highly worthy of respect, highly honorable,
and often highly intelligent too. Some basic demands from atheists are fully
legitimate. The separation between state and religion is perhaps the basic
idea that sums it all up. Some religions, or better, some people in some religions,
have damaged severely this tenet for countless decades, especially in the
USA and UK, I believe. Also, some specific religions, and some specific religious
practices, are truly in clash with "modern life" and "modern values." Are
we to allow a kid to die because he/she cannot receive blood due to his/her
parents' religious convictions? There are several other examples. Like, for
example, the teaching of the deceitful "intelligent design" in classes in
the US.
The reaction from some non-believers has been, likewise, pretty much bizarre.
They have created a new religion: New Atheism. However, unlike most religions,
this one claims to be…Science (and scientific). To me that has the potential
to be the greatest of all harms. When people like Richard Dawkins and Victor
Stenger – or far worse: Sam Harris – step forward and write books where
they declare Religion (all of it) is the cause of the terrorist attack on
the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and when they say it carrying
their badges where one reads "I Am a Scientist and I Am Speaking in the Name
of Science," serious problems loom in the near horizon. That is why I have
often been so harsh on "new atheists" and on people who behave in ways similar
to "new atheists."
There is no doubt that this war must be fought. The question, instead, is
how the contenders are best supposed to move through it, to fight it. Perhaps
the best way to start is not to misevaluate the opponent's true views and
value. Atheism is much much more of a virtue than of a vice. Likewise, religiousness
has many merits in it. Perhaps Jesus (or "Jesus," if you will – for some people
believe Jesus actually did not exist, or at least not the way we think of
him; he might have been a pretty normal fellow whose story got embellished
over some decades to the point of portraying him as a God.) was not always
right in his "teachings." But if there is one of his sayings that seem truly
correct and, topmost, fully applicable to this specific situation is the one
where he teaches:
Love Thy Enemy. So, in science, as well as
in religion and in emotion and in rationality, let the truth be heard, accepted,
and followed.
This last phrase seemed so messianic that I decided
to have someone offer some wine and bread to you readers... 
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