It is more accurate to say that the obsession of some on the left with /debunking/ religion is a symptom of defeat (I see no sign of real 'interest in religion' on the left beyond those who are stridently phobic toward it). Successful left-wing movements have never displayed such a fixation. By extension, the manner of said debunking, involving a regression from Marx to Bauer, is a symptom of ideological retreat.
It is telling in this respect that the 'new atheists' not only engage in the crudest, most flat-footed readings of their subject (Eagleton wipes the floor with them on this point), but almost invariably counter its claims with an appeal to the reactionary pseudo-science of sociobiology. This is certainly true of Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, and their penumbra, though probably not for Parenti.
-- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombblog at googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml