Enlightened Chains pg. 20

Richard Dawkins writes in The Devil’s Chaplain that it is time for all men of science and understanding to stand together to dispel the ignorance that has led religion to be a tool of terror. I agree. However, I would argue that the problem is not religion - it is a failure to incorporate true Enlightenment attitudes into religion. A religion like that of Paine, Jefferson, Montesquieu, Mendelssohn, and Locke offers no threat to science and would shudder as an excuse for terrorism. As Rev. Jim Wallis states quite often, “The answer to bad theology is not secularism, but good theology.”

A theology that fully accepts scientific advances on their own merit without being threatened is a religion that Dawkins should be able to live with. That it offers a means of unifying all of humanity based on shared beliefs and values rather than shared genetics is a bonus of immense usefulness. A belief system that allows a reasoned faith in God and a skeptical faith in what science can reveal is a truly Enlightened belief system worthy of working towards. It is the only thing that can lead us from Kant’s Age of Enlightenment and into an Enlightened Age.

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