Religious Confusions

As much as I am opposed to religion, it is not up to the state to suppress it, it cannot be done. Change can only come from the private sphere, and the change will have to be gradual. Legislation or big initiatives are no match for the combined pop/science double punch: sciencific discoveries extend our horizons, and pop culture has broken down retrograde moral barriers and the rigid ethical strictures that were too often associated with religion.

That's why the fundamentalists, in America as in Iran, are so afraid of these. No wonder the Bush admin is so anti-science as well. It's funny to imagine the mullahs battle with Britney Spears in the heart of the average teenager. The reactionnary forces are still largely predominant, and any hope there is, if any, is in the private sphere, and not.

This is why I scoff at the secular part of the pro-war "leftists" arguments. Their obsession with the mullahs is only motivated by racism, and their appeals against religion (through state-sponsored war and repression!) falls on deaf ears.