In Fátima, Portugal, two days now, and thinking again about religion and humanity. Indeed, one cannot help but do so here, where the entire town has evolved into a living irony, an immersive experience to the selling of religiosity. You walk past shops offering effigies and icons to Catholic history to arrive at the “sanctuary,” a city’s worth of marble and concrete and stone. There remains not the slightest trace of the humble sheep pasture the Virgin chose for her message to mankind.

Yet, amidst acres of concrete, the air pungent with burning candles and wax offerings, amidst amplified prayers and religious chants, amidst the tourists and cameras, ones sees the faithful. And while many of my acquaintance would ridicule, I respect their faith…the same faith that opened the original children and their contemporaries to the experience they found here. But my respect is given not to so much to what others believe, but to what appears to be a basic need to believe in something. And while I admittedly find it difficult not to ridicule at times, militant atheism may bother me more than the most bizarre of faiths, because it invalidates and denies what appears to be an innate, even primordial trait among humans to seek a divine.

I do, however, share the concern about what individuals (and even entire tribes or countries) do with their beliefs. Throughout modern history, religion has undoubtedly been a tool of choice in the recurring quest for power and wealth and dominance. Nor would I deny the damage done to the psyches of children and other vulnerable individuals in the name of religion. But one must identify what to resist, and where. For the most part, ridicule of individual beliefs is disrespectful; and trying to purge the need to believe, futile. The only valid arena for resistance is the political. But another human trait, factional tribalism, may make that untenable as well, even in this most modern and enlightened of times. We are in the midst of a cultural war. Can a civil one be far behind?

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