Acceso usuarios
Ermanno Vitale
An Empty Hell and Crucifixes at School From a philosophical viewpoint, the author claims that the dialogue between believers and non-believers inevitably ends because the precondition of the nonbeliever or secular person is anti-dogmatism, i. e. the refusal to accept any behaviour based on faith. This is so in the name of radical and methodical doubt. The coherent non-believer holds historical religions to be forms of organized superstition, exploitation of popular credulity. Confronted with such a standpoint, it is clear that the dialogue ends: even the attempts made by Norberto Bobbio are indeed vain as the first part of this paper shows. From the legal and political standpoint, however, it is often claimed that it would be possible, feasible and desirable to resolve the issue by recognizing the pluralism of conceptions of the world; none of which can claim to be the ultimate state religion or state ethics. In the light of this principle the second part of the paper offers a comment of the EHRC's decision from the 3rd of November 2009 concerning the crucifix in Italian state schools.
