Deep Thought

Victor Stenger, noted atheist, has come up with the following ad for London buses.

Speaking as someone who is religious, I wholeheartedly agree: science does fly you to the moon, and religion does fly you into buildings.

Whatever benefits an individual, or a society, might derive from religion, there are real dangers associated with people assuming that a supreme being sanctions their actions.

I would also add that the socialist critique of religion, that it is used to maintain the power of the powerful, Karl Marx said that, "Religion is the opiate of the masses," is yet another concern.

I would argue that most of these problems are more an artifact of religion than they are of private and personal faith, and, interestingly enough, the majority of the founding fathers, including George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, would wholeheartedly agree on this point.