“Atheist leaders are not going to think they are getting messages from Beyond telling them to go to war.”

and this gem:

“Atheist leaders are more likely to take a literally down-to-earth view of the needs, interests and circumstances of people in the here and now”

How the unsavoury political interests of an atheist are somehow better than a ‘believer’ is beyond me. Anyone with a brain would understand that political decisions are made on out of interests in the real world. Religious rhetoric is typically just a smokescreen for this. Bush uses religion in the same way he uses mindless flag-waving patriotism. A.C.’s presentation of the case for ‘atheism’ is simplistic and tricky. Is this political player really taken seriously as a philosopher by anyone?