I've been listening to and reading some of the work of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, both of whom have very strong and negative opinions about people who believe in, and have faith in , God and religion. While I myself have no real belief in God and am certainly a lapsed catholic, I find that both men may have forgotten something intrinsic as to why people believe and practice their religious faith.

Now Hitchins ssayst that religion has caused more evil in the world than anything else, in fact he says "when you see something otherwise surprising to you, such as a good person acting in a wicked manner, very often it is because they believe that they are under divine orders to do so"

Dawkins has some similar opinions, Dawkins talk quite a bit about the the power of reason and that reason rather than faith in God or any other supernatural belief is a serious problem. "The trouble is that God in this sophisticated, physicist's sense bears no resemblance to the God of the Bible or any other religion. If a physicist says God is another name for Planck's constant, or God is a super-string, we should take it as a picturesque metaphorical way of saying that the nature of super-strings or the value of Planck's constant is a profound mystery. It has obviously not the smallest connection with a being capable of forgiving sins, a being who might listen to prayers, who cares about whether or not the Sabbath begins at 5pm or 6pm, whether you wear a veil or have a bit of arm showing; and no connection whatever with a being capable of imposing a death penalty on His son to expiate the sins of the world before and after he was born. "

Now I agree with much of what both of these gents have to say but there is something missing in their arguments. There are two thing's I want to point out.

1. Why do people flock to churches, groups, affiliations, buy books on a new way to enlightenment by the boat load? Its simple really. We go to churches and buy these books out of a fundamental need to belong. Ok you say, go and join your local drama society or 4H club, Well the problem with this is that we are constantly seeking the transcendent - that which goes beyond our common experience - and we want to share this transcendent experience with others around us.

You can imagine the sheer joy a born again christian feels when surrounded by a group of fellow believers experiencing what they believe to be transcendent and you can easily see why they would want to share this with everyone.

We live in the western world where the majority of us live in a diaspora. We do not live with our families in close groups but rather we are spread out across the world and talk to our families on certain holidays or birthdays.

So it is easy to understand why people flock together in these groups that pine for the  transcendent. We are very lonely. We often feel cut of from those around us in our own neighborhoods. So the attraction to join is powerful.

2. We live as individuals are in a constant state of conflict between reason and emotionality. It is impossible to for us to be completely logical and reasonable at all times, nor would I personally want to live like that. It would be a grey world. 

So allot of people also end up believing in UFO's, God, Bigfoot, etc because they cannot, nor can anyone, constantly live in a state of reason. We seek an explanation to those things that are unexplainable in the most romanticized or unreasoned way. We want to believe there is something beyond our power and ability to compartmentalize and analyze. We want fairies, goblins, little grey aliens, and frankly God. It makes us feel. 

I would ask these reasonable men and any other man or woman to consider this when condemning people who have strong religious or faith based beliefs.

I would also ask those with these beliefs to consider that there are allot of us who don't hold to the same beliefs and that does not make us, in a reasonable world, less than or inferior to anyone else. 

I would ask those in power within our democracies to remember both of these points and to never forget that you represent the people, not some of them but all of them.

It is in fact a large world. Large enough maybe for us all to exist. Reasonably

Q