Ernst Bloch -- A vision of Hope

Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens all say that religion is a delusion and a dangerous one at that. None of these folk seem able to distinguish between fundamentalism and progressive versions of faith. But German Marxist Ernst Bloch was different. He not only recognized the difference, but his idea of hope proved to be influential in Jurgen Moltmann's development of a theology of Hope.

Peter Thompson, of the University of Sheffield and an atheist himself, writing in the Guardian points to Bloch as a more nuanced understanding of religion, one that sees progressive faith as pointing forward -- toward home.

Thompson writes:

Enlightenment does not mean merely shining a light into the darker recesses of the world but must also mean a liberation of people out of darkness into the light. What progressive religious thought has to contribute to that process of liberation in an age of tumultuous social change is the preservation of human dignity against both reactionary religious obscurantism and value-free scientistic rationalism. To label all forms of religion as part of a general delusion, therefore, does a disservice to both progress and reason. Where we are offers us no home. That is why we constantly feel it is time to move on. As long as that is the case there will be the need for religion. The point, however, is to make it a religion which will be happily complicit in its own earthly fulfilment. And I say that as a good atheist.

I think that Thompson, following Bloch, has a point!

Hat tip to Simon Barrow.