[extropy-chat] Intolerance Against Intolerance

[Olga Bourlin]

Natalie Angier is one of the few journalists I've read who has had the
courage to question why matters regarding "faith" are usually presented so
positively in the press (strangely, the other few are mostly all women, as
well - a couple of exceptions are Richard Dawkins and Gore Vidal, but their
essays tend not to appear in the dailies).  In today's NY Times Angier
reviews a book entitled "The End of Faith" ('"Harris reserves particular ire
for religious moderates, those who 'have taken the apparent high road of
pluralism, asserting the equal validity of all faiths' and who 'imagine that
the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the
unjustified beliefs of others.' Religious moderates, he argues, are the ones
who thwart all efforts to criticize religious literalism. By preaching
tolerance, they become intolerant of any rational discussion of religion and
'betray faith and reason equally.'"):

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/books/review/05ANGIERL.html

IMO we need more such discussions in the media.  If anything, it seems as if
criticism of religiosity has diminished in recent years.

Olga