Anticlerism and atheism

A revised and expanded version of a talk given by Richard Rorty on the occasion of the award of the Meister-Eckhart Sachbuch preis in December 2001, the article provides for its author an occasion for highlighting article provides for its author an occasion for highlighting the latest developments regarding the condition of religion, religiosity, belief, faith, and atheism. Starting form the common sense and rather numerous instances of those who are 'religiously unmusical', Richard Rorty looks briefly at the meandering course of secularization, endorsing the idea that the conflict between science and religion is a struggle for supremacy between two institution. Dealing mostly with Gianni Vattimo's book credere di credere, the American philosopher builds, in his unmistakable style, rich in highlights and shades, a case for the question of the (post)modernist believer, but also an occasion to notice the entrenching line separating the religious from the non-religious person, as two opposing ways of interpreting transcendence; as dependence, for the religious person; as hope, for the non-religious one.