If and Athiest were to say some of the things that Wright, Hagee and other religious zealots have said, they would be rightfully be denounced as both delusional and hateful. But, if it's a "person of faith" saying such things, they tend to be handled with kid gloves. And if you do denounce them, the zealots will raise of accusations of "anti-religious bias". This is the result of a combination of political correctness from the left and anti-secularism from the right.

Take for instance all these "end time" beliefs in which God is supposed to "purify" the world through a genocide that would put the Nazis to shame. (And what is hell, after all, but an eternal concentration camp?)

Although Hitchens overlooks the good that religion can sometimes do, he correctly assurts that it can also perpetuate ignorance, hate and tribalism. Many churches in Germany have historically been very anti-Semitic. Was it any surprise that the Nazi’s were able to rally the masses against the Jews? Hitler himself was said to be fascinated with the book of revolutions. And what was Nazism itself but a religion? They managed to take the worse of Paganism and Christianity and roll it into one.

Many Churches were instrumental in inspiring and carrying out the genocide of Rwanda.

One of the most hateful and violent places on Earth is the Middle East. It is also one of the most religious places on Earth. One of the least violent places on Earth is Denmark, which also has one of lowest levels of Church attendance.

03/24/08

profiles.yahoo.com/curiousgemi­ni25

What you and Christopher have asserted is fairly true but please always remember: "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity."

Or as Ghandi said, "I love Christ but hate Christians for they do not live as he lived."

And this is coming from a raised Catholic who basically considers himself a Deitist, there is a supreme being and he manifests himself in many forms, organized religion is not a prerequisite. God doesn't divide people, religion does.

Good point, except that many non-religious blacks also get away with hate speech on a regular basis. But if you're black and you put the word "Reverend" in front of your name you can operate your mouth in the most vile fashion and expect to not be criticized.