Although this article gives some credence to religion, it also seems to demote faith to more of a “feel good” construct. I’m not sure it really deserves its “shame” moniker.

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Reread the last paragraph, BrainUser; this thesis is that we move towards a higher moral order by calling for an armistice in the ‘religious’ wars. Shame! It is not a higher moral order to capitulate our intellectual integrity when we offer ‘respect’ rather than legitimate criticism as a sign of tolerance to such drivel we find in this year’s crop of books like Wright’s and Armstrong’s.

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Kristof is confusing (or obfuscating) religious criticism with “irreligious intolerance.”  There is nothing intolerant about the critical analysis of an idea, no matter if it is a religious or a secular idea.  Once again, religious ideas are afforded special treatment such that criticism is considered intolerance.

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I’m hoping that the latest crop of books marks an armistice in the religious wars, a move away from both religious intolerance and irreligious intolerance. That would be a sign that perhaps we, along with God, are evolving toward a higher moral order.

lulz.  You’ll be woefully disappointed buddy.

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Well said, ClearPursuit. I wouldn’t want to defend ridiculous ideas, either. It’s entertaining to watch people defend faith. I often feel bad for genuine believers who talk themselves into a corner against a well-informed non-believer. I’ve had this exchange a few times:

Me: “There’s no evidence for you to believe that.”
Friend: “That’s why they call it faith.”

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Exactly how we will be evolving to a higher order of reasoning and taking God along with us has been left out of this little ditty.

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Faith is giving up the fight against mental slavery and letting anything happen by having undefined changes without reason. Morality is a balance of feeling and meaning not pure feeling as some may attribute to faith itself.

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some letter to the editor about kristof’s article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/opinion/l02kristof.html

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I have begun to suspect that the god(s) of particular groups or cultures reflect the psychology of those groups. For instance, YHWH seems to embody the insecurity and overcompensation of a small tribe desperately trying to preserve its uniqueness against the surrounding polytheistic cultures. Odin reflected the attitudes of the thanes and warriors, Thor of the lower classes, of the pagan North. Hinduism reacted to repeated conquests by withdrawing into an otherworldly mysticism in which our inner consciousness is God. I don’t know whether this tendency is universal, but as our own culture embraces tolerance and diversity (sometimes to the paradoxical point of excluding every exclusivist opinion), suddenly God has followed suit and embraced tolerance as well.

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Wright’s book was not drivel, as tildeb said.  Read between the lines.  “Gods’ have always been tools of the politically powerful.  Jesus was just another apocolyptic preacher.  Paul later leveraged his death into a powerful franchise by *adding* the love and brotherhood theme.  Wright compared Paul to Bill Gates—he found a platform that needed an operating system.  As for Kristof’s “can’t we all just get along” conclusion, how about this one instead: Can’t we Americans finally accept that it’s OK to NOT be religious?

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