SANTANDER, Spain, AUG. 27, 2002 (Zenit.org).- «The death of God» is dead.
So says Spanish philosopher and essayist José Antonio Marina, who hastens to add: «There is a resurgence of religions, but in a confused manner.»
The latter phenomenon tends to encourage «credulity rather than lucidity,» adds Marina, who has spent years studying the theory of intelligence, which takes into account philosophy, neurology, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology.
«All kinds of spiritualism, esotericism, Eastern meditation, psychotherapies, and weight-losing diets have been combined,» representing «a kind of confused conglomeration,» says the philosopher in a course on «Intelligence and God» at Menéndez Pelayo International University.
Of religion, Marina asserts: «Not only has it not disappeared, but it is increasingly present in today’s world.» Hence, he thinks the diffusion of the «death certificate of religions in the middle of the last century was a rash act.»
Marina acknowledges that one of the factors that have harmed the perception of religion is its occasional linkage to «movements of national identity and fundamentalist movements.»
He cites Islam as an example. The Muslim world, he says, is not carrying on a «war of religion against the West, but a war of identity,» in which religion is used «as a flag.» As a result, many people regard religion as a hindrance rather than a help for humanity, he laments.
But Marina notes that the predictions that scientific learning would remove religion from «the head and heart of men» have not been fulfilled. On the contrary, he adds, «two separate citadels have been created, which observe each other with suspicion.»
