We have relegated to the “remember when” columns all resistance to the updating of Thanksgiving Day to lengthen time for Christmas shopping. This year it was a September Saturday when the first school boy (“Earn $50 this easy way!”) came to our door to sell us greeting cards. Now, finally, almost anachronistically, Advent announces itself as the beginning of preparation for the Nativity.
At a conference in Maine last month I was cast alongside Richard Dawkins, author of the best-selling The God Delusion. But we did not debate. We were on parallel paths and went in opposite directions.
His career and his book are devoted to opposing all religions and all manifestations of faith. He argues that humanity will truly be on the path to progress only after all traces of religion are expunged, and he calls on readers to join in the expunging.