Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 1:01am
Atheists renew assault on religion
Atheists are renewing their assault on religion even as a growing number of scientists in the "intelligent design" movement are saying that biology testifies to the existence of a higher intelligence.
The assault takes the form of books bearing titles like "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason" and the best-selling "The God Delusion." There is also the recent founding of the Center for Inquiry Transnational, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to opposing the interference of religion in legislative decision-making, Our Sunday Visitor online (OSV.com) reported Thursday.
Richard Dawkins, Oxford University evolutionist and author of the "The God Delusion," writes, "[The God of the Old Testament] is a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
He also compared God to a child's imaginary playmate, specifically a little purple man with a tinkling bell, and religious education to "brainwashing." He made the latter remark at a conference last November in La Jolla, Calif., called "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival," bringing together an international collection of scientists who made Dawkins look mild in comparison.
"The world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief," said Steven Weinberg, one of the conference's keynote speakers and a Nobel laureate in physics. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium and an adviser to President Bush on space exploration, said
"Science is a philosophy of discovery; intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance."
It appears as if the world of science is gearing up for an all-out war on the world of religion. As the saying goes, however, all is not what it seems, according to author and University of Delaware physicist Stephen Barr. He says this seeming war is not really between science and religion, but between atheism and religion.
"The problem is atheists, not scientists," said Barr. "There are far more scientists who are religious than scientists who consider themselves opponents of religion."
Barr says Western religious indifference, as well as the specter of religious fundamentalism raised by Islamic extremists, create an opportunity that atheists are quick to seize. They're simply repackaging hackneyed arguments against religion and passing them off as the reasoned conclusions of science, he says.
Barr adds the delusion of a war against religion takes hold because many atheists, including those at the La Jolla conference, see science as a religion in its own right, which has the power to free man from disease, hunger and even death. Real religion, with its moral obligations and ethical imperatives, stands in the way of the unlimited (and unchecked) scientific progress in which they've put their faith, he says.
"They have a psychological investment in making religion appear as hateful as possible," he said.
That investment has taken concrete form in the Center for Inquiry Transnational, founded by the renowned atheist Paul Kurtz. It lobbies against the influence of religion in legislative decision-making on Capitol Hill.
According to Kurtz, the center doesn't deny the rights of Christians to have opinions on issues like abortion, stem-cell research and AIDS prevention. He just doesn't think they have the right to insert their opinions into policy debates.
"We believe in liberty of expression," Kurtz told Our Sunday Visitor. "But to impose a moral perspective on these issues, issues that are matters of scientific inquiry, is illegitimate."
Barr doesn't fear that scientific truth will undermine religious faith. "Modern science - especially physics and cosmology - have shown us how deep the beauty and orderliness of the universe are," he said.
Many of the world's greatest scientists were also religious men, such as St. Albert the Great, Jesuit Father Angelo Secci (the founder of modern astrophysics) and Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel (the father of genetics) as well as devout Catholic laymen like Copernicus, Blaise Paschal and Louis Pasteur, Our Sunday Visitor noted.
Between Dawkins' book and Kurtz's group, the mythical war between science and religion will likely make more headlines. In the end, however, Barr expects the most lasting damage in the "war" will be to the reputations of those waging it. "In the long run," he said, "fanatics always hurt their own cause."
The assault takes the form of books bearing titles like "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason" and the best-selling "The God Delusion." There is also the recent founding of the Center for Inquiry Transnational, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to opposing the interference of religion in legislative decision-making, Our Sunday Visitor online (OSV.com) reported Thursday.
Richard Dawkins, Oxford University evolutionist and author of the "The God Delusion," writes, "[The God of the Old Testament] is a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
He also compared God to a child's imaginary playmate, specifically a little purple man with a tinkling bell, and religious education to "brainwashing." He made the latter remark at a conference last November in La Jolla, Calif., called "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival," bringing together an international collection of scientists who made Dawkins look mild in comparison.
"The world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief," said Steven Weinberg, one of the conference's keynote speakers and a Nobel laureate in physics. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium and an adviser to President Bush on space exploration, said
"Science is a philosophy of discovery; intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance."
It appears as if the world of science is gearing up for an all-out war on the world of religion. As the saying goes, however, all is not what it seems, according to author and University of Delaware physicist Stephen Barr. He says this seeming war is not really between science and religion, but between atheism and religion.
"The problem is atheists, not scientists," said Barr. "There are far more scientists who are religious than scientists who consider themselves opponents of religion."
Barr says Western religious indifference, as well as the specter of religious fundamentalism raised by Islamic extremists, create an opportunity that atheists are quick to seize. They're simply repackaging hackneyed arguments against religion and passing them off as the reasoned conclusions of science, he says.
Barr adds the delusion of a war against religion takes hold because many atheists, including those at the La Jolla conference, see science as a religion in its own right, which has the power to free man from disease, hunger and even death. Real religion, with its moral obligations and ethical imperatives, stands in the way of the unlimited (and unchecked) scientific progress in which they've put their faith, he says.
"They have a psychological investment in making religion appear as hateful as possible," he said.
That investment has taken concrete form in the Center for Inquiry Transnational, founded by the renowned atheist Paul Kurtz. It lobbies against the influence of religion in legislative decision-making on Capitol Hill.
According to Kurtz, the center doesn't deny the rights of Christians to have opinions on issues like abortion, stem-cell research and AIDS prevention. He just doesn't think they have the right to insert their opinions into policy debates.
"We believe in liberty of expression," Kurtz told Our Sunday Visitor. "But to impose a moral perspective on these issues, issues that are matters of scientific inquiry, is illegitimate."
Barr doesn't fear that scientific truth will undermine religious faith. "Modern science - especially physics and cosmology - have shown us how deep the beauty and orderliness of the universe are," he said.
Many of the world's greatest scientists were also religious men, such as St. Albert the Great, Jesuit Father Angelo Secci (the founder of modern astrophysics) and Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel (the father of genetics) as well as devout Catholic laymen like Copernicus, Blaise Paschal and Louis Pasteur, Our Sunday Visitor noted.
Between Dawkins' book and Kurtz's group, the mythical war between science and religion will likely make more headlines. In the end, however, Barr expects the most lasting damage in the "war" will be to the reputations of those waging it. "In the long run," he said, "fanatics always hurt their own cause."