Here is the link I promised. There are some things he says that are impossible to disagree with. There is no doubt that we tend to belong to the religion that goes with our own particular culture - by sheer accident of birth. Personally I don't think that matters. I've never thought there is only "one path". There are obviously many but we're all heading in the same direction after all.
I don't understand what you mean by that last sentence.
I don't think for one minute that there is only one "right" way, although I concede that others do.
Actually, here's something I'd be interested in knowing: are there many religious moderates in the uk actively trying to combat literalist and fundamentalist religious beliefs? (I assume there are; I would be interested in reading what they might have to say)
Also, are there many actively promoting secularism? For all this talk of the importance of an inclusive, pluralist society, I am inclined to believe that the main people pushing secularism at the moment are atheists/agnostic (though if this is true, that probably tells us little. But I would be interested to know).
The point of this link though was with regard to your remark about Dawkins showing respect for religious leaders or religious people. At some point in this link he implies - well actually he says that people who are atheists are more intelligent.
Now, I'm not a fan of IQ-based arguments: what he says is that there was a meta-analysis done that correlated education and IQ to Atheistism. I would be willing to go with the Education-based argument however. I would think that the more education that a person has access to, the more informed their beliefs will be. To say that people who do not have access to a diverse set of ideas and concepts will tend to just use those that are around them is *entirely* reasonable.
Of course a lot of this depends on what sort of education people have access to (for instance, the education system in Saudi Arabi, is, from what I have heard, entirely islamocentric).
So basically he thinks that religious people are thick. Not very respectful.
I do not think that "respect" in the sense I am understanding it as used here is something that needs to be given any amount of lip service. I also, as I've said above, think that the inference above is a rather personal one, and I don't see it at all (though, once again, I have a strong distaste for IQ-based arguments about anything).
