John Gray has a long and thoughtful piece ^[1] in The Guardian about the recent spate of books proselytizing atheism (Dawkins, Hitchens, Sam Harris, et al.) and why they are, if not wrong, exactly, at least incomplete. I generally find Gray maddeningly woolly and evasive, and I believe he wanders off the reservation now and again in this piece. Still, it is much worth reading, not least for its peroration:

The attempt to eradicate religion, however, only leads to it reappearing in grotesque and degraded forms. A credulous belief in world revolution, universal democracy or the occult powers of mobile phones is more offensive to reason than the mysteries of religion, and less likely to survive in years to come. Victorian poet Matthew Arnold wrote of believers being left bereft as the tide of faith ebbs away. Today secular faith is ebbing, and it is the apostles of unbelief who are left stranded on the beach.