[Vision2020] Atheists Fight Back

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

Thanks for the posting Tom.  

I've been following this very closely, especially the entry of our own Doug Wilson into the fray.  I have not decided on the topic of next week's radio commentary, but it might be one on these "secular fundamentalists."

Here is a draft of the first lines:  

"Jerry Falwell is dead and Pat Robertson discredits himself with nearly every thing he says.  The GOP coalition between Goldwater and early Reagan conservatives and the Religious Right is in shambles, especially with the birth of the Cheney's grandson in a lesbian (gasp!) family.  This is the worst possible time for atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens to stoke the fires of the culture wars."

"The nation's theological illiteracy is found among our non-believers as well as our believers.  There is a whole range of religious options between the two extremes of Wilson and Hitchens of which most people are unaware. Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins forget that we are emotional beings as well as rational beings, and there are things in this world that reason cannot comprehend.  Albert Einstein, Max Planck (see his quote below), and many others scientists realized this and that is way they did not become secular fundamentalists."

Well, I almost have a column, so I might go with it, but I might also do another one on Morocco, or Sam Brownback's uneasy grasp of evolution, The Nation's (May issue) incredible spread on global warming, The World Peace Index, Head Scarves in Europe and Turkey, Tibet, Assault Rifle Madness, and many more.  So many topics, so few weeks!

Nick Gier, The Palouse Pundit, www.NickGier.com

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." --Max Planck