Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

Hundreds of Web sites purport to deal with this phenomenon, but I am not in a position to endorse any of them as accurate, so I will not list any. This in itself is worrisome, and constitutes an excellent reason to conduct an objective investigation of the whole End Times movement, and particularly the possible presence of fanatical adherents in positions of power in the government and the military. What can we do about this? I suggest that the political leaders who are in the best position to call for a full exposure of this disturbing trend are those whose credentials could hardly be impugned by those who are fearful of atheists or brights: the eleven senators and congressmen who are members of the “Family” (or the “Fellowship Foundation”), a secretive Christian organization that has been influential in Washington, D.C., for decades: Senators Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), Conrad Burns (R., Mont.), and Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.).¹⁷ Like the nonfanatical Muslim leaders in the Islamic world on whom the world is counting to cleanse Islam of toxic excess, these nonfanatical Christians have the influence, the knowledge, and the responsibility to help the nation protect itself from those who would betray our democracy in pursuit of their religious agendas. Since we certainly don’t want to relive McCarthyism in the twenty-first century, we should approach this task with maximal public accountability and disclosure, in a bipartisan spirit, and in the full light of public attention. But of course this will require that we break the traditional taboo against inquiring so openly and searchingly about religious affiliations and convictions.

So, in the end, my central policy recommendation is that we gently, firmly educate the people of the world, so that they can make truly informed choices about their lives.¹⁸ Ignorance is nothing shameful; imposing ignorance is shameful. Most people are not to blame for their own ignorance, but if they willfully pass it on, they are to blame. One might think this is so obvious that it hardly needs proposing, but in many quarters there is substantial resistance to it. People are afraid of being more ignorant than their children—especially, apparently, their daughters. We are going to have to persuade them that there are few pleasures more honorable and joyful than being instructed by your own children. It will be fascinating to see what institutions and projects our children will devise, building on the foundations earlier generations have built and preserved for them, to carry us all safely into the future.

APPENDIX AThe New Replicators

[For context, see p. 81. Reprinted, with permission, from The Encyclopedia of Evolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).]

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It has long been clear that in principle the process of natural selection is substrate-neutral—evolution will occur whenever and wherever three conditions are met:

replication

variation (mutation)

differential fitness (competition)

In Darwin’s own terms, if there is “descent [1] with modification[2]” and “a severe struggle for life” [3], better-equipped descendants will prosper at the expense of the competition. We know that a single material substrate, DNA (with its surrounding systems of gene expression and development), secures the first two conditions for life on earth and the third condition is secured by the finitude of the planet as well as more directly by uncounted environmental challenges. But we also know that DNA won out over early variations that have left their traces and ongoing exemplars, such as the RNA viruses and prions. Are there on this planet any other completely different evolutionary substrates that have arisen? The best candidates are the brainchildren, planned or unplanned, of one species, Homo sapiens.