That may be, but by pushing the envelope, so to speak, the ideas gradually gain acceptance. And when we begin to have such discussions about how freedom of religion is antithetical to a free society, creationism is a threat to deomcracy, and religion (or superstition) “profoundly undermines civilization” there is only one direction this is leading.

Governments have gone that way in the past, and it hasn’t always been the ones controlled by some religious view. As the article in Wired Science points out, some of the greatest blood baths in modern history have been at the hands of secular states.

And I read some interesting critiques of Dawkins last night. Some were sort of lame, but some were rather interesting. I’ll see if I can find them and post some links. One particularly struck my peculiar sense of humor, but the chances of rediscovering it are slim. I need to learn to bookmark more often.

Of course, Dawkins was never one to let evidence to the contrary stand in his way.

On a tangent, do you read Vox Day’s blog?

Shawna, you haven’t heard of my favorite “evangelical” atheist? Author of “The God Delusion,” inventor of the term “meme” and forwarded the gene-centered view of evolution? He even has his own foundation, but the website needs some serious work. It looks nice, and I believe you can donate, but that is about all that is set up at the moment. He has also been dubbed “Darwin’s rottweiler,” a fitting description.

T.F. Stern, I agree. That analogy has always disturbed me. It is how I first came to know about Mr. Dawkins.