[snip] If you think horoscopes are bunk, you don’t have to call yourself a “non-astrologer,” writes Sam Harris on the blog the Huffington Post. “Likewise, ‘atheism’ is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.” –Harold Henderson | hhenderson@chicagoreader.com
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[snip] “Neither the Ten Commandments nor the teachings of Jesus seem to command any more practical adherence in America than in Europe,” writes Australian commentator John Quiggin on the blog Crooked Timber, even though many more Americans than Europeans profess to be religious. “The (apparent) unimportance of religious belief for social outcomes was one of the great surprises of the 20th century, although, like most negative results, its significance is not fully appreciated. In the 18th and 19th centuries, nearly everyone thought that religious belief made a big difference, for good or ill.”
[snip] “Let’s not make a religion of civil liberties,” writes Judge Richard Posner in a vigorous online debate with University of Chicago colleague Geoffrey Stone at legalaffairs.org. “My family survived its brush with McCarthyism quite nicely, as did most of McCarthy’s victims. . . . Life without the self-incrimination clause, without the Miranda warnings, without the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule, with an unamended USA PATRIOT Act, with a depiction of the Ten Commandments on the ceiling of the Supreme Court, even life without Roe v. Wade, would still, in my opinion anyway, be eminently worth living.”
