Ghost of a flea

I have got a mustard seed (continued)

Benedict XVI has developed a careful critique of what is usually described as atheism* and beyond that of European paganism, the latter revived in the twentieth century. My aim here is to make a simple additional point about Benedict's Regensburg address, however, so I want to avoid rehearsing those arguments in detail. For fear of wandering into a semantic morass, let us describe the subject of Benedict's criticism as secularism. Secularists are people who Benedict argues have come to rely too much on reason - a kind of perversion of reason** - at the expense of faith and consequently of natural law. Much has been made of the Pope's careful citation of Byzantine emperor Manual II Paleologus on Islam and reason and its tempestuous reception by the Islamic world. There is a second reaction that should be underlined. The dog that did not bark, as it were, was what might be described as a non-reaction to Regensburg on the part of half the people the address was meant to criticize. Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, amongst others, often point out how atheists are not prone to riot and mayhem when they are taken to task for their views. It is an important point and, for the most part, a fair point for most secularists vis a vis the Regensburg address.

So I want to say the following quite carefully. There were, so far as I know, no atheist or "pagan" riots, acts of murder or calls for the death of Benedict XVI following the address. We need to draw a clear ethical distinction between vigorous disagreement and killing nuns.***

But we must also note the jihadis and "islamists" were not the only party indignant at Benedict's thoughts at Regensburg. At least one party of secularists too were indignant; after all, the bulk of the Pope's argument was directed at them. There were Muslims outraged at what Benedict had to say about Islam and there were secularists outraged at what Benedict had to say...

... about Islam.

The shade of Theo van Gogh cries out at a folly repeated in the Mohamed cartoons, imagined indignities foisted upon the Koran at Gitmo and most recently in the film-making of Geert Wilders. No criticism that cannot be described as a hate crime; no death threat or atrocity in the streets that cannot be excused as a cri de coeur. For all too many of us, it seems the only spleen we have left to vent is on behalf of the men who would hack our heads from our necks. We saw this in the millions who took to the streets on behalf of a Ba'athist dictatorship. It remains with us in the sentimentality that is considered the only decorous way to "remember" the dead of 9/11 and its attendant horrors from 1979 on down. Benedict clearly knew half his point would be made by Muslim reaction to his indirect charge of irrationalism. Perhaps he knew the remainder of his argument would be made for him by the secular apologists for irrationalism who would leap to the defense of those calling for his blood.****

* Sam Harris argues self-described "atheists" should stop using the term and instead simply argue in favour of reason. Harris takes care to take atheists to task for their "even handed" criticism of religious belief; for example, when abortion clinic bombings are pointed out every time the jihadis go about their Dark Ages public relations. It is wrong to draw an equivalence between occasional outrages on the part of ersatz Christian fundamentalists - acts condemned by Christians and illegal under every Western code of law - and the day to day barbarism of jihadis acting in accordance with their religious and (what passes for) civil law. Christopher Hitchens too, is clear on this point. Dawkins, not always so much.
** Faith being an expression of reason consistent with natural law to deny faith is, in this light, irrational. So goes the argument.
*** From behind. By stealth. Such was the conviction of at least one jihadi. I expect his family are proud of him. As one of my students once said to me "It's all relative, right?" No. It is not.
**** I am beginning to think we are dealing with a Mentat Pope. Sweet.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 2, 2008 07:04 AM

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