Recently, religious arguments that have gone on for centuries have become the hot new topic in the media.
In the latter-day version, secular humanists, whose principal spokesmen are proudly atheistic, set up the God of Abraham as a straw man and have a field day taking pot shots at Biblical reports of his savagery, such as ordering Isaac to slaughter his first-born son but reprieving him from the task at the last minute or in urging the Israelites on sundry occasions to slay other tribes unto the last generation.
Then they trot out the venerable Charles Darwin to prove that we evolved by natural selection, instead of with the superintendence of Abraham's God or, with an untidy leap, the participation of any other conceivable Deity.
The larger question is, however, can knowledge derived from the world we can know tell us anything about what may or may not be outside of it? Is there a credible bridge between the test tube and determination of the existence or nonexistence of the God of the usual theisms or whatever else we may choose to call God? In defense of their beliefs, the Judeo-Christian faithful point to what they consider Biblical truth, while the more liberal theologians concede that the revelation had to pass through human intermediaries - a process that, these scholars maintain, accounts for the instances of brutality, as well as the inconsistencies, in the Scriptures.
But the overriding question for their side remains similar to the one the secular humanists must confront: Can anyone in finitude credibly know what may be outside of it? What if all the inhabitants of this small planet in a far corner of one galaxy can do is observe what is within the natural world and intuit as best we can what might or might not be outside of it -- or capabilities of the natural world we do not yet understand? And what if what we can know within the natural world is all that we're supposed to know? Can we be certain enough about our supernatural conclusions to hate and kill one another over them? Can we begin to look within what we can know for guides to conduct, like life itself, which needs our care more than ever and is the tangible representative of whatever the origin of life might be? Of course, knowing that life can be quite a tribulation at times, we can respect the beliefs or unbeliefs any person finds helpful, as long as they don't harm others.
In fact, the only new position would be widespread moderation of our various enthusiasms about the eternal mystery of existence.
Maybe modern media can finally enable that revelation.
Then, lo and behold, we'd be talking about a difference that could actually make a difference.