Chris Hedges has done the heavy intellectual lifting to articulate my concerns in a pair of books he's written in the past couple years, which examine the dangers of dogmatism as practiced both by religious fundamentalists ("American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America") and the New Atheist movement ("I Don't Believe in Atheists"), of which Professor Dawkins is a leading light.
To get a sense of the arguments Mr. Hedges expounds in his books, read this interview in Salon.
Extremism (whether it's left or right) arises from the need to defend ourselves. And from the need to be right . . . as in, my point of view is the correct one and yours is not . . . which, of course, is the mother of all defensive positions. If you're possibly right, then I could be wrong . . . which leaves me in a vulnerable place. Well, vulnerable if I am a very insecure person.
Most advances (scientific, artistic, intellectual, etc.) have come at the expense of being wrong repeatedly. That's the wonder of existence . . . we learn by being wrong and then trying something else.
Both the fundamental religious and New Atheist camps have given up that basic joy. They have found their answers.
Though I suspect that somewhere there's an ember of doubt in each camp. No question, if found, this ember would be stamped out. But one of the amazing things about our inherent need to defend is that we're always paranoid. Even as we stamp out doubt, we're always worried that a spark has escaped . . . and a spark of doubt can always overcome any ism.
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