2077) If I were to mock religious beliefs as childish, if I were to suggest that worshiping a supernatural deity, convinced that it cares about your welfare, is like worrying about monsters in the closet who find you tasty enough to eat, if I were to describe God as our creation, likening him to a mechanical gorilla, I'd violate the norms of civility and religious correctness. I'd be excoriated as an example on the cynical, liberal elite responsible for America's moral decline. I'd be pitied for my spiritual blindness; some people would try to enlighten and convert me. I'd receive hare mail. Atheists generate about as much sympathy as pedophiles. But, while pedophilia may at least be characterized as a disease, atheism is a choice, a willful rejection of beliefs to which vast majorities of people cling.

Yet conventional wisdom holds that we suffer from an excess of secularism. [...] In fact, almost all Americans (95 percent) profess a belief in God or some universal spirit, according to a 1994 survey by U.S. News and World Report. Seventy-six percent imagine God as a heavenly father who actually pays attention to their prayers. Gallup reports that 44 percent believe in the biblical account of creation and that 36 percent of all Americans describe themselves as "born-again." [...]

In this climate - with belief in guardian angels and creationism becoming commonplace - making fun of religion is as risky as burning a flag in an American Legion hall. But, by admitting that they're fighting a winning battle, advocates of renewed religiosity would lose the benefits of appearing besieged. Like liberal rights organizations that attract more money when conservative authoritarians are in power, religious groups inspire more believers when secularism is said to hold sway. [...] When forced by facts to acknowledge that God enjoys unshakable, non-partisan, majoritarian support, religion's proselytizers charge that our country is nonetheless controlled by liberal intellectual elites who disdain religious beliefs and have denied it a respected public role. [...] [In actuality] what's striking about American intellectuals today, liberal and conservative alike, is not their Voltairean skepticism but their deference to belief and their utter failure to criticize, much less satirize, America's romance with God.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2078) Man is a marvelous curiosity [...] he thinks he is the Creator's pet [...] he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him, sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Letters from the Earth (1909)
quoted by Wendy Kaminer in
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2079) [Religion is] so absurd that it comes close to imbecility.

H.L. Mencken
Treatise on the Gods (1930)
quoted by Wendy Kaminer in
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2080) Since the early days, [the organized church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body an mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.

H.L. Mencken
Treatise on the Gods (1930)
quoted by Wendy Kaminer in
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2081) If evolution is true, then it has nothing to fear from some other theory being taught.

an unnamed Tennessee state senator
quoted by Wendy Kaminer in
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2082) [L]egislation is often based in religion [...] You'd be hard-pressed to find a period in American history when majoritarian religious beliefs did not influence law and custom. From the nineteenth century through the twentieth, anti-vice campaigns - against alcohol, pornography and extramarital or premarital sex - have been overtly religious, fueled by sectarian notions of sin. Domestic relations laws long reflected particular religious ideas about gender roles (which some believe are divinely ordained.) But religions impact on law is usually recognized and deemed problematic only in cases involving minority religious views: Christian ideas about marriage are incorporated into law while the Mormon practice of polygamy is prohibited.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2083) Secularists are often wrongly accused of trying to purge religious ideas from public discourse. We simply want to deny them public sponsorship. Religious beliefs are essentially private prerogatives, which means that individuals are free to invoke them in conducting their public lives - and that public officials are not empowered to endorse or adopt them.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2084) Advocates of religiosity extol the virtues or moral habits that religion is supposed to instill in us. But we should be equally concerned with the intellectual habits it discourages.

Religions, of course, have their own demanding intellectual traditions, as Jesuits and Talmudic scholars might attest. Smart people do believe in Gods and devote themselves to uncovering Their truths. But, in its less rigorous, popular forms, religion is about as intellectually challenging as the average self-help book. (Like personal development literature, mass market books about spirituality and religion celebrate emotionalism and denigrate reason. They elevate the "truths" of myths and parables over empiricism.) In its more authoritarian forms, religions punishes questioning and rewards gullibility. Faith is not a function of stupidity, but a frequent cause of it.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2085) The magical thinking encourage by any belief in the supernatural, combined with the vilification of rationality and skepticism, is more conducive to conspiracy theories than it is to productive political debate. Conspiratorial thinking abounds during this period of spiritual and religious revivalism.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2086) Skepticism is essential to criminal justice: guilt is supposed to be proven, not assumed. Skepticism, even cynicism, should play an equally important role in political campaigns, particularly today, when it is in such disrepute. Politicians have learned to accuse anyone who question or opposes them of "cynicism," a popular term or opprobrium associated with spiritual stasis or soullessness. If "cynic" is a synonym for "critic", it's a label any thoughtful person might embrace, even at the risk of damnation. [...] Would a resurgence of skepticism and rationality make us smarter? Not exactly, but it would balance supernaturalism and the habit of belief with respect for empirical realities, which should influence the formulation of public policy more than faith. Rationalism would be an antidote to prejudice, which is, after all, a form of faith. [...] Faith denies facts, and that is not always a virtue.

Wendy Kaminer
"The Last Taboo" in
The New Republic (10/14/1996)

2087) [Scientists} are members of an extremely tribal culture.

Carl Djerassi
"Science-in-Fiction Is Not Science Fiction. Is It
Autobiography?"
lecture at Harvard Science Center (10/28/1996)