Yoshie wrote:
> For that purpose, it is generally not advisable to debate theological
> questions with theists. For, after all, theology is only relevant to
> believers. Instead, we ought to approach all religions mainly as
> social phenomena, ways for people to organize themselves into social
> networks for the purpose of mutual aid and political mobilization, and
> study various theological views only in so far as they aid the
> understanding of religions as social phenomena. Once we understand
> religions in this way, we can then see which congregations have to be
> a part of any potential coalition on the Left.
Dawkins is one of a few liberal British commentators who see religion as uniquely dangerous. There was a documentary recently by British Labour party member and actor Tony Robinson about the End Timers which, like a similar documentary by Dawkins, tended to blame every single problem on those who believed too firmly in religion. The stuff by former CIA agent Robert Baer describing suicide attacks as a 'cult of death' is in this vein too. Sam Harris takes this position to its ultimate logic. Dawkins and Robinson are merely misguided, of course,
whereas Sam Harris is a despicable piece of shit.
It was predictable that with the general collapse of other forms of identity (communism, most
spectacularly) that religious identities would become prominent, thus resuscitating a very old
liberal critique of religion and the politics of religion. The irony is that this critique, supposedly a scathing indictment of superstition and delusion, dogmatically accepts the theological underpinnings
of capital, which is simply accepted as there, as part of the natural order of things, a logical step in a
long process of technological development and the specialisation of labour. And that Smithian divine
narrative is accompanied by all sorts of mad, quasi-religious doctrines about 'human nature' (which
inevitably posits a natural inclination toward trucking, trading and bartering, homo economicus, as
well as toward selfishness, cruelty, vindictiveness etc), which not only abound freely in liberal
discourse but actually sustain it. The apocryphal tales about the development of capitalism fed to
students in Business Studies and Economics classes are underpinned by a touching faith in the
benevolence of the Holy Profit and the providential guidance of the Hidden Hand. With devout rectitude,
one never questions these assumptions, one simply entertains every silly fable and fairy tale about free
markets and enterprise and property rights. Every grotesque result of this grotesque system is
externalised: in effect, the theodicy of Robinson and the Robinsonades is that God did it. In fact,
watching these documentaries, one can't help but be moved by the immovable faith that Robinson,
Dawkins and Baer have in the real earthly power of God. They are true believers. _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d