Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.2008, Side 16

out in Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment, that the sources
of totalitarianism lie in the European Enlightenment - specifically, in its
allegedly instrumental and totalising conception of reason.11 It is a point
that postmodern critics of modernity would wish to press home. Hitchens
locates the roots of totalitarianism in religion. There is no recognition of the
deeper truth that its origins lie in precisely the worldview that he advocates
as the solution to our ills.
At this point, we must emphasise the vitally important distinction
between a “religion” and a “worldview”. This is a distinction that the
“New Atheism” singularly fails to make or defend. Both religions (such
as Christianity) and worldviews (such as Marxism) demand allegiance
from their followers. The most successful worldviews incorporate religious
elements, even if they are fundamentally secular in their outlook — as in
the Soviet Union’s use of quasi-religious rituals to mark essentially secular
events. The historian Martin Marty, noting the lack of any viable definition
of religion, offers five “features” that he holds to be characteristic of religion;
all five, he notes, are also characteristic of political movements.12 It is not
unreasonable to point out that, if religion is dangerous on this count, then
so are politics. There can be (and are) political fanatics, just as there can be
(and are) religious fanatics. The problem is fanaticism, not religion itself.
The tone of the “New Atheism” critique of religion suggests that fanaticism
may not be limited to the ranks of those who defend religion.
The “New Atheism”, of course, argues that religious worldviews offer
motivations for violence that are not paralleled elsewhere - for example,
the thought of entering paradise after a suicidal attack. Yet this conclusion
is premature, and needs very careful nuancing. For Harris amd Hitchens,
it is obvious that religious belief leads directly to suicide bombings. It’s a
view that his less critical secular readers will applaud, provided they haven’t
read the empirical studies of why people are driven to suicide bombings
11 Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Seabury Press,
1972. There are also imporcant points made in Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism. lst
ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
12 Martin Marty with Jonathan Moore, Politics, Religion, and the Common Good: Advancing a
Distinctly American Conversation About Religion’s Role in Our Shared Life. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass, 2000.
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