Få som följer den amerikanska ateist-/skeptikerbloggosfären kan ha missat det bittra tonkriget om hur man från skeptiskt och ateistiskt håll bör förhålla sig till religion. I ett avsnitt av poddradion Point of Inquiry från oktober i år sändes en paneldebatt om just detta ämne från en amerikansk humanistkonferens. Paneldeltagarna var Chris Mooney, PZ Myers och Jennifer Michael Hecht. Debatten är värd att lyssna på i sin helhet, men jag tog mig friheten att återge ett replikskifte (21:43—23:36) som jag tycker kapslar in kärnan i debatten:
Mooney: I would then go on to say, is that hey, we’ve got some great Catholics who are great allies in promoting the teaching of evolution. And, you know, Kenneth Miller happens to be a Catholic and Kenneth Miller is an incredibly persuasive missionary, in a sense, towards religious people to talk about evolutionary science and he’s very, very good at it, he’s very, very persuasive, he’s very, very entertaining. I love watching Ken Miller talk. And what I worry about is a viewpoint that somehow says that the Ken Millers, you know, that … something defective because I don’t agree with them metaphysically even though we got all these same things in common when it comes to our understanding of the natural world and suggesting that they’re not the best allies — I think that they’re wonderful allies and they’re essential allies for certain aspects of what we want to achieve.
PZ: But whoever said they weren’t good allies?
Mooney: I feel like there’s a lot of attacks on—
PZ: Yes, there are.
Mooney: …quote ”religious moderates.”
PZ: Yes, there are, and there will continue to be these attacks. That, you know, I can personally appreciate a lot of the work that Ken Miller does. I think he’s great; I would say, yeah, go out, go out, Ken, and do more. I want him to do that. So, but at the same time, that does not mean that now his crazy ideas are inviolate, that we can no longer criticize them. There’s this tendency I’m seeing where we’re sort of sanctifying certain individuals in this movement because they make good contributions, that now all of a sudden we can not criticize the crazy part—
Hecht: Well, I think Chris is saying something that has to do with strategy. And I’m not involved in the movement in the way, in that way, and so I don’t tend to think about strategy. If I don’t agree, I’m gonna say so, and in varying types of language, depending on what I think’s going on.
Jag har själv rätt bestämda åsikter om det hela, men dem lämnar jag möjligen för ett senare tillfälle.
Etiketter: ateism, humanism, religion