(To)Day's Dilemmas for Diderot

Before it is possible to asses which current day issues would be of interest to Diderot, it is necessary to first investigate what interested him in his own lifetime. As did all philosophes, Diderot had a variety of interests; skimming the list of subjects that he wrote about in his Encyclopedia, the most interesting were philosophy, ethics, intolerance, geography, political sciences, law, religion, and the human condition. Some of these are connected topics and so might be made broader - the human condition, religion, ethics, and intolerance are all interconnected things and must be looked on as such. Political sciences, law, and geography could work together in a category as well. Generally, this helps us to see what he might want to discuss in today's world.
Diderot might be fascinated by our issues with religious intolerance of the type that I addressed not too long ago in my paper about misconceptions of Muslims. Rather than the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the motivating emotions might have held more import for him. The creation of madrases and the conflict in the middle east would for him have been significant both religiously and politically.
The ideas that Richard Dawkins brought up in his talk would have been of special consequence to Diderot, especially because in many ways they both rivaled and supported his own ideas. (Though Diderot was ultimately atheist, he was a long time in becoming so. There was no sudden transformation from Roman Catholicism, but a gradual change.) Diderot would have been interested also by Dawkins' thoughts on the scientific method and the need for evidence to prove points. As we all know, this especially was a novel idea at the time, one that was taken up gladly by many great thinkers.
The voting system or Supreme Court of the United States might draw him because of his own thoughts on the creation of laws. "There is no true sovereign but the nation; there can be no true legislator but the people." Though the United States was only just being created in his time, Diderot's ideas here reflect those of our founding principles. Addressing religion in politics, he says, "...disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs." Generally, the policies of the United States would have appealed to Diderot.