Subject: [Fwd: Re: Harvard Conference poster]

From: "R.Stephens" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 20:34:25 -0400

Very strongly reasoned!:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Harvard Conference poster
Date: 	Sun, 8 Apr 2007 15:52:19 EDT
From: 	[email-masked]
To: 	[email-masked]

Dear Dr. Stephens:

I want to thank you for sending on the New Humanism information.  How I 
wish I could be there.  I certainly agree with the position and count 
myself a Humanist.  However I am a bit disturbed by the brief mention of 
"anti-religious fundamentalism."  This seems to me to be a knee-jerk 
phrase being bandied about these days to describe certain individuals 
who have had the "effrontery" to question religion and its role in civic 
society and, indeed, its truth or lack thereof.  I speak, of course, of 
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchins, 
who calls himself an Anti-theist.  If indeed these gentlemen are being 
referred to in using this phrase, I cannot agree that they are 
fundamentalist, and to call them so is a misnomer than can lead to no 
good among humanists.  Here's a couple of definitions of fundamentalism: 

*1 a :* /often capitalized/ *:* a movement in 20th century Protestantism 
emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian 
life and teaching *b :* the beliefs of this movement *c :* adherence to 
such beliefs
*2 :* a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a 
set of basic principles.

Neither define, in my view, what Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, or Hitchins 
are trying to accomplish, unless their "basic principles" are reason 
over irrationality, the scientific method as the most practical and 
successful way to understand nature in all its complexity, and the 
concept that religion should not be allowed to hide behind its 
"sacredness" to avoid criticism. 

The Enlightenment began a revolution that is continuing.  I believe the 
future -- which I would like to be a long one -- of our species depends 
on that revolution succeeding.  If it does not, if we fall back into a 
true fundamentalism of any literal-minded kind (religious or political), 
it will not be a new Dark Age -- it will be a Black Age.  That being the 
case, I welcome those who have the courage to stand up and point out the 
negativity of religion's preeminent place in the civic structure of 21st 
Century human society, even if they have to seem brash, bulldoggie, and 
rude to do it.

For as the John Adams says in the musical play 1776:  "It's a 
revolution, damn it!  We're going to have to insult someone!"

Best regards,

Steven Paul Leiva
*“**Steve Leiva not only promises but delivers. This is a fine first 
novel. Bravo!” — Ray Bradbury*/-author of Fahrenheit 451/
Click Here: Check out "Steven Paul Leiva's 
<http://electricpresskit.com/leiva/>*Blood is Pretty 
<http://electricpresskit.com/leiva/>* - Homepage" 
<http://electricpresskit.com/leiva/> www.stevenpaulleiva.com

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*Bob Bergen in -- Not Just Another Pretty Voice*
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(Wednesdays April 25 thru May 30 at the Stella Adler Theatre)
Written by Bob Bergen & Steven Paul Leiva -- Directed by Steven Paul Leiva
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<http://www.plays411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=838>  
http://www.plays411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=838

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