I think that Mr. Wright continues to overlook one major element in is his arguments – that religions blur the line between history and fiction. His claim that the secular Jews who first inhabited Palestine used the Bible as a “historical text” simply overlooks the nature of the Pentateuch / Torah as viewed by Judaism. It’s not used by the Jews as merely some sort of historical document like the Declaration of Independence (his ridiculous comparison, not mine) – it’s used as a sacred rulebook from God.

Does Mr. Wright not consider the fact that the Jews believe the Torah was written by Moses via direct revelation from God as important? It’s not a matter of the Jews simply saying, “Um, sorry Palestinians, our history books say this land belonged to us first.”… No! It’s the Jews declaring, “This book that God gave us says this land was promised to us by him.”

I’d also like to add that, just like Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, Mr. Wright is aware that religious beliefs help to create and mold political agendas – just as political agendas can help to create and mold religious belief… But the real issue is, does it ultimately matter which one leads to the other?

Let’s assume he is right about the Arab / Jewish conflict… Fine. But, does it really matter that the dispute BEGAN as a land war? The sprinkling of religion into the recipe has now turned a territorial conflict into a holy war, with both sides using their own particular notion of God as cosmic justification for their actions.

Does Mr. Wright really think that either side could go back to (what he believes) was the root of this problem? Does he honestly think that the Palestinians and Israelis could simply eschew their religious differences and look only at the issue of territorial boundaries? It seems to be clear that they cannot… religion has made the divide between them far too wide and complicated to be easily or simply traversed – which I would argue is ultimately the more important issue that the so-called “new atheists” Mr. Wright criticizes are trying to bring to light.

It’s unfortunate that Mr .Wright cannot see that it’s ultimately not important that conflicts such as this BEGAN about religion – it’s that they’ve become virtually unresolvable BECAUSE of religion.