The Battle Against Religion Heats Up

Atheism: the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
Pope Benedict XVI: head of the Roman Catholic Church, which was founded by Jesus Christ who is regarded by Christians as the Son of God

Well known atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have consulted with lawyers to obtain arrest warrants for the Pope over the sex abuse scandals involving priests, when he visits Great Britain in September.

Journalist Hitchens is the author of "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" and is most infamous for his attack on Mother Teresa whom he called a fanatic and a fraud.

Mr. Dawkins wrote the best seller "The God Delusion" and is the reputed expert and go-to guy on atheism.

He wrote in his blog: "I am optimistic that we shall raise public consciousness to the point where the British government will find it very awkward indeed to go ahead with the Pope's visit."

Both atheists are continuing the recent attacks on the Pope by the New York Times, which has published allegations that the Pontiff knowingly ignored an abuse case involving a Wisconsin priest decades earlier while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Germany.

Oddly enough, the most cogent and illuminating defense of the Pope came from a frequent critic of certain Catholic cardinals, Professor Alan Dershowitz. In an excellent article for FrontPageMag.com, he does what the New York Times and other leftwing media hacks failed to do. He did not jump to conclusions that suited a certain mindset and instead explained the complexity of the scandals.

He lists in great detail the traditions of the Church that defy snap judgments. They are in brief: confidentiality; forgiveness; the Church as State; internal due process, and, most importantly, the tradition of moving slowly "and in seeing the time frame of life quite differently than the quick pace at which secular societies respond to the crisis of the day."

Another excellent point he makes is: "It's easy to forget, in the face of real victims with real complaints, that there have also been false accusations as well. Processes must be put in place that distinguish true complaints from false ones."

He concludes with the following: "Most important, this tragedy should not be used as an excuse to attack a large and revered institution that does much good throughout the world. Blame must be placed with precision and praise should be given with precision as well. The eleventh Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Stereotype, must never be forgotten."

But the attack on the Pope is just the latest in the battle against all things religious. HBO star Bill Maher wrote and starred in the 2008 feature "Religulous" in which he trashed religion and people of faith. Mr. Maher used to be a funny guy when he first came on the scene. He used to joke about growing up Catholic and Jewish so when he went to confession he'd bring his lawyer. Now that's funny!

But now he takes himself far too seriously and plays to a like-minded audience that cheers him on when he's most offensive to conservatives and evangelicals.

Ironically, in his film, Mr. Maher makes this strange statement: "Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do."

But isn't that exactly what the secular intellectuals do when they pooh-pooh religion as superstition and dangerous? In Ben Stein's film "Expelled," which was about how difficult it is to have intelligent design even mentioned in academia today, he interviews Mr. Dawkins and we learn a crucial fact: Mr. Dawkins has no idea how the world began but he knows there is no God. Has atheism become his religion?

Mr. Dawkins claims that the world began with the origin of the first self-replicating molecule. When Mr. Stein asked how that happened he answered that he had no idea nor did anyone else.

Upon further questioning the "brilliant" Dawkins comes up with a possible scenario that could fall under the same categorical belief as L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology.

Dawkins: "Well ... it could come about in the following way: it could be that, uh, at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization e-evolved ... by probably by some kind of Darwinian means to a very very high level of technology and designed a form of life that they seeded onto ... perhaps this ... this planet.... You might find a signature of some sort of designer ... m, and that designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe. But that higher intelligence would itself would have to come about by some explicable or ultimately explicable process."

Huh?

When my son Matthew was just 6-years-old he asked me what an atheist was because he had heard the word on television. I told him that atheists do not believe there is a God. They believe that the world began with the Big Bang. He thought about this a bit then said, "Well, what started the Big Bang?" I said, "Exactly."

Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and the secular elite are certainly entitled to believe in whatever they choose but I suspect that they view their opinions as possibly intellectually superior to true believers of faith. I wonder if they've ever read what Albert Einstein thought about intelligent design.

He expressed his opinion with humility sorely lacking in today's religious critics: "In view of such harmony in the cosmos, which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views. I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages.... The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God."

Faith is a precious gift that is readily available for the asking. I pray that one day Dawkins et al will recognize Einstein's wisdom and humility in accepting His presence.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com