Chris Hedges, who previously railed against theocracy in American Fascists, now calls for a matching pox against those who don’t have any religious houses:

There are two radical and dangerous sides to the debate on faith and religion in America: Christian fundamentalists, who see religious faith as their exclusive prerogative, and New Atheists, who brand all religious belief as irrational. Too often, the religious majority—those committed to tolerance and compassion as well as their faith—are caught in the middle.

He does have quite a point. How is believing in invisible, supernatural creatures — without a shred of evidence to support their existence — in any way irrational? And have you ever watched Richard Dawkins and company? In four words: danger, danger, warning, warning!  Read more 

Greg Epstein, Harvard’s Humanist Chaplain, requested feedback on his Newsweek/WaPo/On Faith post, “Less Anti-theism, More Humanism,” where he argues:

In most people’s minds, “religion” does not just stand merely for belief in an unseen, all-seeing deity with a baritone voice and a flowing beard. It stands for the things we hold most dear: family, tradition, and community. Memories of lost loved ones and consolation in the face of death. The organized pursuit of social justice. Not to mention music, art, architecture, and I could go on and on.

These things are all good. If you take a rhetorical blowtorch to religion without acknowledging the way it provides them, you get precisely what we have today: a nation and world where despite all our scientific knowledge, 80 to 90 percent of people say they are religious.

Being an agreeable sort, I obliged his request for comment, posting the following to On Faith’s approval queue…  Read more