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Entry: Hitchens' Hubris Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/hitchens_hubris#2670 Post contents: It has often struck me how many atheists are not people who are solely interested in the material aspects of life and indifferent to religion or the spiritual, but rather are animated by what can only be called faith - in their case, the positive faith that there is no God. Not content simply to let the religious lives of others pass unmolested, they organize themselves into groups (congregations) like the Secular Humanist Society, hold meetings (services) at which programs (liturgies) and speeches (sermons) are presented, under the direction of officials (clergy). They publish books such as Hitchens's (tracts) and otherwise try to draw attention to themselves and persuade others to accept their point of view (proselytism or evangelism). Their credo usually includes a standard creation-myth (evolution) and an apocalypse (variable - it used to be 'nuclear winter,' now it is 'global warming,' and in 20 or 30 years will probably be something else). In other words, atheism of the sort Hitchens, Dawkins, and others of their ilk profess has just about every aspect of organized religion. Atheists of this sort often pose as rationalists and appeal to 'science' for their support, but any philosophically scrupulous consideration will show that there is no more empirical evidence to support their faith than to support any other faith. Science concerns itself exclusively with the natural world, and must accordingly take a position of neutrality about the verity of any spiritual or supernatural claim. It is agnostic, not atheist. Christians and other theists would do well to recognize that atheism's most successful dissimulation is its claim not to be a religion. The First Amendment provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Atheists, with the help of the United States Supreme Court (in cases like Lemon v. Kurtzman), have successfully twisted this into the requirement that cities (inter alia) may not permit Christmas creches or decorated trees or Easter-egg hunts in public parks, children may not write prayers or references to the Bible or draw pictures of Jesus in their schoolwork, crosses may not form part of civic seals or coats-of-arms, the Boy Scouts or other groups with a religious qualification or affiliation may not use municipal or state facilities for their meetings, and the phrase "under God" is banished from the pledge of allegiance to the flag. In other words, quite contrary to the intention of its framers (who wished to protect churches from government interference) the First Amendment has deliberately been misrepresented to mandate that atheism shall be the official religion of the United States. Sent at: 2008 07 09