Madam, - Richard Dawkins's blanket condemnation of religion is surely as misguided as William Reville's disparagement of humanism is patronising. The real issue would appear to be authoritarianism, whether it wears the mask of religious or scientific intolerance.
Recent research indicates that the human brain is "hard-wired" for a sense of the divine, of a deeper meaning, maybe to make bearable our self-awareness and knowledge of impending death. A specific "religious" gene has been identified, one which Reville quite possibly possesses, but Dawkins probably lacks. Similarly, there is clear evidence that a tendency to self-transcendence is an aspect of parietal lobe function. The tragedy is that while hierarchies seem also to be an evolutionary necessity - useful, for instance, in getting a house constructed, or a cell-based body organised - we humans have an endless capacity for turning them into instruments of oppression.
The hierarchs of both religion and science claim to know what is best for us, both manipulating what is ultimately the political influence of cultural belief-systems. Whether the underlying belief is in "scientific" social progress or in some divine mandate, the effects of authoritarian structures are all around us, manifested in the current politics of fear and fundamentalism. Nor should we forget that the most lethal of the 20th century's "atheistic utopian" regimes, the People's Republic of China, still holds a fifth of the world's population in its authoritarian grip.
We should be concerned at the erosion of democratic rights and freedoms, whether in the name of science, religion, trade, terrorism, or any of the banners under which militant creeds claim authority over us. - Yours, etc.,
ANTHONY O'BRIEN,
Tibet Support Group Ireland,
Ailesbury Road,
Dublin 4.