Reply #9: Well, I haven't read the book yet

[TallahasseeGrannie]

and I'm not agnostic or atheist. But I'll annoy everyone and pipe up.

My first thought is that he must be coming from a Western perspective to come up with that conclusion because it seems so ethnocentric. Then I think to myself, get real. He's right. We can be a nasty culture, but we don't blow ourselves up in the marketplace and we don't behead our enemies on TV. (we are much more tasteful and covert than that). I don't know why that is.

When 9/11 happened I think it was Jimmy Breslin who remarked that the Christian religion was much more bloodthirsty in its 1300th year, and that the Muslim faith was still young. That might be rather condescending, or it might be right on. I actually know very few Muslims and haven't been in that area of the world, but his point makes sense to me.

Would I rather a Christian or Muslim theocracy? Obviously, I don't want either, but the Christian would be more familar to me culturally. Would they be as blood thirsty as the Taliban? I don't think so because the Taliban were partly acting in response to years of war. But I think back to Oliver Cromwell and really don't want any part of that...or Jerry Falwell's rules for Liberty College. Free will means free will. I vote for the separation of Church and State. That's why we came over here and we need to hold on to that.