Atheism

In the Guardian Weekly of January 12-18 2007, Tobias Jones wrote an article called « Meet the new totalitarians » with the subtitle : militant secularists like Richard Dawkins are telling us believers to remain in the closet.
Jones’s conclusion is that the secular fundamentalists – as he calls them – are anti God, and that they want the eradication of religion, and all believers from the face of the earth. Jones states a.o. that until recently many believers hid their religion in the closet, conceding it was something private.
This is putting the world on its head. Has Jones forgotten about for instance the Cruisades, the burning of witches, the auto-da-fé’s, the many many wars of one religion against another ? Hasn’t he read recently about the killings world wide in name of one religion or another? Apart from wars for independence, religion is somewhere the basic reason for all the wars presently fought. Hasn’t he heard about the many laws in the USA against abortion, gay-marriage, stemcell research and what not simply because the religion was against them ? Hasn’t he heard about the restrictions by the Vatican against condoms, although that is one of the most helpful measures against the HIV infection? In the closet, Jones says…
What atheist want is being left alone and being able to do what they want to do, without interference of any pope, preacher, ayatolla or whomever. And yes, they would like to be spared any excessive expression of religion.