Posted on 10/18/2006 5:25:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics.
"Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15.
There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview.
Religious polarization is part of many world conflicts, he said, including those involving Israel and Iran, "but it's never discussed. I consider it the story of our time, what religion is doing to us. But there are very few people calling a spade a spade."
His "Letter," a blunt 96-page pocket-sized book condensing arguments against belief in quick-fire volleys, appeared on the Times list just ahead of "The God Delusion," by Richard Dawkins, a scientist at Oxford University and long-time atheist.
In addition, Harris' "The End of Faith," a 2004 work which prompted his "Letter" as a response to critics, is holding the No. 13 Times spot among nonfiction paperbacks.
Publishers Weekly said the business has seen "a striking number of impassioned critiques of religion -- any religion, but Christianity in particular," a probably inevitable development given "the super-soaking of American politics and culture with religion in recent years."
Paul Kurtz, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism and publisher of Free Inquiry magazine, said, "The American public is really disturbed about the role of religion in U.S. government policy, particularly with the Bush administration and the breakdown of church-state separation, and secondly with the conflict in the Mideast."
They are turning to free thought and secular humanism and publishers have recognized a taste for that, he added.
"I've published 45 books, many critical of religion," Kurtz said. "I think in America we have this notion of tolerance ... it was considered bad taste to criticize religion. But I think now there are profound questions about age-old hatreds."
The Rev. James Halstead, chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at Chicago's DePaul University, says the phenomenon is really "a ripple caused by the book publishing industry."
"These books cause no new thought or moral commitment. The arguments are centuries old," he told Reuters. Some believers, he added, "are no better. Their conception of God, the Divine-Human-World relationship are much too simplistic and materialistic."
Too often, he said, the concept "God" is misused "to legitimate the self and to beat up other people ... to rehash that same old theistic and atheistic arguments is a waste of time, energy and paper."
Dr. Timothy Larsen, professor of theology at Wheaton College in Illinois, says any growth in interest in atheism is a reflection of the strength of religion -- the former being a parasite that feeds off the latter.
That happened late in the 19th century America when an era of intense religious conviction gave rise to voices like famed agnostic Robert Ingersoll, he said.
For Christianity, he said, "It's very important for people of faith to realize how unsettling and threatening their posture and rhetoric and practice can feel to others. So it's an opportunity for the church to look at itself and say 'we have done things ... that make other people uncomfortable.' It is an opportunity for dialogue."
Larsen, author of the soon-to-be-published "Crisis of Doubt," added that in some sense atheism is "a disappointment with God and with the church. Some of these are people we wounded that we should be handling pastorally rather than with aggressive knockdown debate."
These are also probably some of the same people Harris says he's hearing from after his two books.
"Many, many readers feel utterly isolated in their communities," he said. "They are surrounded by cult members, from their point of view, and are unable to disclose their feelings."
"I get a lot of e-mail just expressing incredible relief that they are not alone ... relieved that I'm writing something that couldn't be said," Harris added.
"Father forgive us for what we must do,
You forgive us and we'll forgive you,
We'll forgive each other 'till we both turn blue,
Then we'll whistle and go fishing in 'a Heaven."
-- John Prine
*************
He's certainly doing the work of the Devil.
That would be funny if it weren't true.
BTW, there is STILL 'slavery' in parts of the world.
And we rightfully condemn it.
I agree.
Over time the people in ancient societies learned that certain actions promote stable, healthy societies, and certain actions don't. Those that do not were later given the label immoral or, when integrated into the religion for enforcement, sin. Since we're all the same species, the same themes popped up in various different disconnected societies, even pre-dating the Bible.
How else is eating pork a sin in the OT and Quran? It was a health rule in that society that got put into the religion. The health aspect is gone now that we know how to properly preserve and cook pork and why it's important, but the moral prohibition still remains for those who believe.
Yes it is, thanks.
I liked The Matrix too.
Actually, I was Christian in my earlier years. It is more an academic question for me now. A satisfactory answer, which may exist, wouldn't mean conversion (reversion?) for me.
Wait a minute. What about the murder, rape and genocide ordered by God? Oh yes, it's not immoral if God is ordering it. So it is not an absolute moral.
God creating humans with free will is enough reason for me to be satisfied with.
And tell me sir what religion is always there....
Whosoever shall say 'thou fool' shall be in danger of hell fire.
Nonsense. Morality is derived from observation and analysis of how to keep the peace within human societies.
Man, these leftists are really trying hard to take over this nation. I don't know why I keep getting amazed at the tactics of these imbeciles. I should be used to it by now. Thank God we have a powerful God and still some good people that will never let that happen.
I'm reminded of a (probably apocryphal) anecdote about a few good ol' boys in the local Klan hearing word of a "pagan gathering" to be held in the local woods. Figuring that beating up a bunch of pansy granola-crunchers would be an amusing way to pass the time, they headed out to crash the party.
The didn't find any granola-crunchers. They did find a bunch of burly folks with axes and shotguns, who did not appreciate the interruption of their Valhallan rites....
Odd, he didn't seem to think so when he dictated the thirty-first chapter of Numbers....
story where there is none.
religion will always prevail over athiesm. If Christianity fails, it will be Islam that reigns supreme. There will be no post God world
People do indeed commit heinous acts upon one another. However in a wider scheme of things Satan is the King of this world. Until God returns in might, Satan will direct the events of this world into the deepest recesses of hell. Why do you think culture is taking it's downward flush? It will only get worse before it gets better. Satan will decieve multitudes, as he has already done. Many people find the idea of Satan coordinating world events to be silly, I tell you the truth, if he is the king of this world as the bible states, God has let him have this power.
What you say is somewhat true. But, consider this; God, in letting Satan have the power he wields, also provided humans with the ability to choose between His Word and that of Satan's. We have the choice to follow God's ways or Satan's; we have the consciousness to discern evil from good and turn away from that evil. We can fault no one but ourselves if we fail to follow God's path that he has set before us. Not even Satan has the power to force us into his bidding. We must enter into it will full willingness and cooperation, or turn away from him and toward God.
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