Michael Shermer is publisher of Skeptic magazine, and author of several books on reason and rationality. He has written a letter that appeared in the September 2007 issue of Scientific American. It addresses what many are calling the "new Atheists" who have been writing some books on atheism that many have described as quite aggressive and confrontational. Examples ranging from accusing religious moderates of aiding in the causes of terrorism and extremism, to calling religious parents child abusers, to an outright rejection of religious tolerance where theists are concerned, and more.Shermer's position is a brief but concise summary of many of the arguments against this approach, which support my stance and the fourth of five basic concepts on which the notion of the Humanist Contemplative is based.
If you would like to read the article, you can order back issues from Scientific American, or read it on their website by clicking the link below. To subscribe to Scientific American you can click here:
It is best if you can read the article from the original source. However, if the link above has expired or been lost, I have archived on my philosophy site, LINK HERE.
Many thanks to Mary Beaty, who first alerted me to this letter.
What NEEDS to happen is for western civilization to return to it's Hellenic roots - not so much the separation of "church and state" so much as the separation of "reason and cult" or "ethics and subjective religious experiences."
ReplyDeleteThe nastier "new atheists" neglect this, and in doing so basically give away the keys to having meaningful access to the hearts and minds of the masses of humanity.
But then again, I'm not sure if this is such a huge loss for mankind, as I have my doubt that many of them really have anything profound or useful to say once their anti-religious vitriol is put to the side.
Tim