Spate of atheistic attacks against religion noted by a Catholic analyst

Folks, Zenit.org reports:

Religion in the Cross Hairs

Secular World Attacks Organized Belief

By Father John Flynn

LONDON, NOV. 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Organized religion is coming in for harsh criticism in many parts. English singer Elton John said religion turns people into "hateful lemmings." He also accused it of lacking compassion. His comments came in an interview with the Observer newspaper's Music Monthly Magazine, published Nov. 12.

The aging pop star's criticisms were sparked off by the matter of how religion deals with homosexuality. "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people," he said.

He is far from being alone in this view. In the United States, talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell likened Christianity to radical Islam. Her attack, in a nationally broadcast program in October, was not well received, according to a Nov. 13 press release by the California-based Barna Group.

A nationwide survey by the Barna Group found that although few Americans would challenge O'Donnell's right to make such statements, just as few share her point of view.

Across the Pacific, Pamela Bone, writing in the Australian newspaper on Aug. 15, rejoiced over data which, she argued, showed that "in nearly all prosperous liberal democracies, atheism is strong."

Bone accused religion of being "directly responsible for countless world conflicts, resulting in the loss of millions of human lives." Religion is still a danger today, she contended: "The truth is that it is now too dangerous for religion to be given the special status it has always had."

Bone added: "The best hope for a less religious and thus safer world is for religion -- all religion -- to be open to rational and stringent examination and criticism, and yes, to ridicule."

Please, continue reading here.

Commentary. Fr. Flynn writes pretty much in the same vein as Dinesh D'Souza did a few days ago. Atheists, agnostics, and those who follow other "less repressive" spiritualities are coming out of the woodwork to denounce organized religion, reserving their most poisonous attacks for Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular.

These critics' primary target are Fundamentalist Christians who interpret the Bible literally and lack a coherent, unifying view of Tradition and scholarship that would equip them to better engage the findings of empirical science. But the critics don't stop there. Instead, they seek to undermine the entire edifice of faith and culture by reducing every form of Christian belief to the artificial, lowest-common denominator that Fundamentalism represents to them. In other words, the seek to undermine the edifice of Catholic belief and the robust intellectual tradition it represents, by dumbing it down to the level of Fundamentalism and thus dismiss it as unworthy of the consideration of thinking peoples.

In logic they call that a fallacy, or rather, fallacies, a whole chain of them in fact: selective use of evidence, special pleading, red-herrings, and emotional appeals. Atheists boast of their superior, cultivated intellects and unassailable arguments but even under the most superficial analysis one can see that theirs is an empty boast.

That worries them because they are seeing that more and more sophisticated thinkers are calling their bluff. They refuse to be upstaged. Hence we see their shameful display of vitriol and hate—and the spate of their books and publications.

We are on to them and they feel the heat. Let's keep the heat on.