WTF Atheists!?

[Cyberman]

Lets be realistic here, you are not going to get rid of religion, but you can contain it with secular concepts like the Constitution, well, at least the founders intent ant not the rivized bullshit theist sell.

I certainly wouldn't want to try to get rid of religion. Whatever else can be said about it - and it can - religion does give people a sense of security, community, even hope sometimes. In that sense, it's like a drug, from which it may be possible or even critical to wean people. The Clergy Project is working proof of that. Hopefully, in the longer term, religion will then evaporate on its own. What we can do in the meantime is to keep religion as an institution from accruing power and influence over the weak, the disenfranchised and the gullible. It could be regarded in terms of a 'war' of sorts against the tobacco companies, preventing them from poisoning new recruits while at the same time caring for those who want to escape the drug's hold. I realise this may be somewhat less than focused, it's late and I'm overtired. My excuse and I'm stuck with it

But you are right, anything ANYTHING can go off the rails if left unchecked, that can be religion, but it also can be political parties of any stripe, or even a business climate(IE) like the one that fucked us all over. Everything needs some sort of checks and oversight based on consent, otherwise fascism surely is to rise.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke