The Unfounded Haughtiness Of The Irreligious

It seems a great deal of scorn is directed at religious folk these days, which is rather typical of moribund civilizations. What the irreligious appear to dislike most is that people could actually believe in something unverifiable, immeasurable, and impervious to scientific analysis (i.e., "fairy tales"). Yet it is precisely a belief in these sorts of things that makes a man noble. Ideals cannot be measured with the crude implements of science, nor can truth, justice, or the need for mercy. Only the animal inhabits a world of purely tangible objects, and animals know nothing of ideals. Small wonder that civilization collapses when a firm and shared concept of the ideal is lost, for only that vision can motivate people beyond the blood-soaked law of the jungle. As tragic irony, the most educated and credentialed among us today are the neanderthals of millennia ago.