Excellent essay. I'll only quibble with one point. While Reich is correct that the big battle we face is between those who embrace reason and those who embrace religion, he isn't quite nuanced enough. The enemy isn't fans of religion, it's fanatics of religion - an important distinction. It's people who don't use religion to find their own moral code, but rather people who use religion to define YOUR moral code and, like all the good dictators of history, insist that you comply with THEIR code or else.
I've said it before:The religious right is the single biggest threat to religion in America today. Their bitter hearts and angry minds, and their insistence on living your life for you, only serve to convince middle-of-the-road Americans that all people of faith are kooks. And that's too bad.
Now for Reich's article:
"The great conflict of the 21st century may be between the West and terrorism. But terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The underlying battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernist fanatics; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe blind allegiance to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is no more than preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe that truth is revealed solely through scripture and religious dogma, and those who rely primarily on science, reason, and logic. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism is not the only danger we face."
