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 I just read the article. If I had read it before our merging of the classes, I might have been tempted to lambast those who want the building to be renamed, or those who want its purpose to be reassigned, whilst praising those who thought the debate was a lot of nonsense. But I've tasted a sense of subtle righteousness. I still want to make those allegations, yet I have to bite my tongue and remember the fiery defensiveness and swelling pride I felt as our differences were judged, and as I judged them. I am also thankful that somehow, we all seemed to realize that the sense of "betterness" was destructive, even if we all kind of felt/feel it still. I think this attempt at understanding or at least accepting the positions of others is key to solving these insane (aren't they?) debates.

Has anybody else ever read/heard of Sam Harris? I read his book The End of Faith last year. He has the opposite notion and feels that moderation in organized religion facilitates fundamentalists' actions and beliefs. In other words, by acknowledging that religion is open to interpretation, one acknowledges and gives credence to extreme and dangerous interpretations. Harris feels that "reason" (of a scientific variety) clearly negates any organized religion today. It's an interesting stance, but, as we have discovered, scientific reasoning is hardly an agreed upon logic. It ends up sounding as if "Scientific Reasoning" is just another god contending with all the others in their self-imposed zero-sum game..."we can't all be right!"

An interview of Neil Gaiman that I read a while ago popped into my head as I was writing this. So I leave with this quotation:

"Given that we’re living in a universe in which religions and mythologies and semi-imaginary things, depending on where you’re standing, the level of imaginariness…. There are definitely people who look at the entirety of what’s going on the world today as a couple of people fighting over whose imaginary friend likes them better. And then you’ve got people who say, “No, no, this isn’t an imaginary friend, he’s actually the real thing. But that guy over there, he’s an imaginary friend.” And it’s huge and it’s responsible for an enormous amount of worry and difficulty and it’s why I’m not allowed to travel with eight ounces of shampoo."

Neil Gaiman, Bookslut Interview, October 2006