Hey, I recognize the current dominance and danger of religious thinking, but I take note of any signs of weakness and I’m hopeful that it will be overcome in the future. That’s not pollyannaish — that’s Nietzschean!!! (Who’s the good son, now?

Very cool Dawkins essay; if it weren’t for his wacky neo-reductionist views on selection, I’d want to be him. And the Gore Vidal line “The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism” is awesome.

On Glenn’s optimism: You try to raise ‘em right, instill a sense of darkness and dread, and then you send them off into the world. What happens? They go all pollyanna on you. I hope yer right, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the pendulum swings a tiny bit back away from W’s faux piety, but I’ll see it when I believe it.

And although it’s not directly religion: I’ve been predicting for the last week that Bush’s gang are going to either manufacture or allow a new terrorist attack on US soil in order to have a concrete excuse to use those forces he’s got built up near Iraq now. They don’t want to lose face by packing up and going home now that the rest of the world is balking, but they fear the domestic political repercussions if they defy the UN without a clear excuse. I hope I’m wrong.

Here’s an essay by Richard Dawkins on Sept. 11 that’s a follow up to “Religion’s Misguided Missiles.” Gotta like it! Time to Stand up

Hey Glenn, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State list churches who have formal policies supporting the separation. (However, I have a feeling that many of the parishoners don’t know that their church’s position is this. I tend to doubt that the average Seventh Day Adventist is really opposed to prayer in the school).
AU.org religious outreach

OK, I’m gonna try some optimism again. These pieces that Ron cites, especially the one about Bush’s exclusionary religious language and the one about the bad history of presidents using religious principles to make decisions, are interesting to me because of their tone and because of the perspectives from which they are written. People like us (who would contribute to a blog called “God is For Suckers”) are hyper-sensitive to this kind of stuff, but it’s encouraging to see so many more “normal” people (those who presumably would not contribute to a blog called “God is For Suckers”) picking up on Bush’s religious fanaticism and its consequences. Maybe in the long run (here’s the optimism), Bush’s frightening example will result in a more widespread respect for the importance of the separation of church and state.

By the way, anti-war demonstrators in Chicago yesterday were overheard chanting: “Who would Jesus deport?” and “What would Jesus bomb?” maker quicktime moviesci movies fisweet sapphic moviesbondage teen moviesmovies digimon uncutmovies wetlooksex movie analmating movie animal Map

A few quick reads: Here’s a nice gentle but effective op-ed from the Philadelphia Inquirer on the exclusionary effect of Bush’s religious language. Here’s a nice slightly more in-your-face bit from Russ Baker on the questions reporters should be asking about Bush’s “faith based” charity initiative. And here’s a nice, sober, historical piece from Newsday on the history of religious faith in the White House. (And you know those folks at Newsday get only the best to write for them.)

On the decline of influence of religious leaders: I hope this is a glass that’s half full, but it makes me nervous that the illustration of the the decline in influence is a case where on average the religious figures are actually right. Maybe the rule is that they’ll take religious justifications to be assholes (e.g., anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-free-speech), but not to be more decent and humane (e.g., anti-war).

And on the Europeans: Hey, put this together with the French & German opposition to attacking Iraq, and I’m starting to, of all things, like the fucking French. Man, the world is getting to be a strange place.

A passage from an article about why Europeans hate us so much (Joking Aside, a Serious Antipathy to Things American Rises in Europe):

Even the role of religion in society divides Americans and Europeans, who are uneasy with American politicians’ frequent evocation of God and the use of churches and Bibles as political props. The Bush administration is often portrayed here as having a black-and-white view of the world rooted in a kind of religious certainty that God blesses America, and its mission in the world, above other nations.

Europeans have become increasingly lax in their religious practices. Though France is still culturally a Roman Catholic country, only about 10 percent of the French regularly attend Mass.

“Even in Italy, there is greater separation between church and state than in America,” says Antoine Sfeir, a French author and journalist. “You will never see the Bible used here in state ceremonies,” much less have heads of state hold prayer breakfasts, he added.

In general, the Continent has moved toward more secular and liberal views.

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