A secular-humanist approach would mean, for instance, having employees who interact with the public say ‘happy holidays’ instead of ‘merry christmas’, or not opening meetings with a prayer, or avoiding religious imagery in product packaging. Things that transcend government.

but we can demand that secular humanism be respected as the best system for all people

“We don’t care if you’re not an atheist as long as you admit you’re a fucking moron and we’re smarter than you”? Jesus, come out and say it already.

If what you mean is that a secular government is the best system for all people, that’s kind of a different thing.

I just moved to Savannah, GA where there are a ton of markers and monuments to Pres. Washington’s great Southern tour. While he may have been a deist, he certainly was one to pour the religious rhetoric on thick when giving speeches at churches.

Amanda, you give Hitchens far too much and far too little credit: he’s smart enough to know exactly what his allies believe, and he’s opportunistic enough to not care. Hitchens is a funny figure, a perfect foil for his erstwhile nemesis Bill Clinton: one is a writer and one a politician, but they share a mercurial ability to assume whatever position they think will win them the most attention at any given time, regardless of the merits of that position or its incompatibility with their past positions or present beliefs.

They both, in short, have what I and some of my friends refer to as “fat boy syndrome”: a sort of laziness, narcissism, insecurity, and desperate need for approval and attention (sexual or otherwise) that seems to be universal among men who grew up as pudgy little bookworms. My friends and I first recognized this contellation of symptoms through self-diagnosis, of course, but once you recognize it you start seeing it all over the place. Clinton is an extreme example, and relatively benign; Hitchens is the syndrome in one of its darker manifestations.

Also, atheism, like religion, is very easy to lie about effectively, because it’s in your head, not on your face (like race or gender) or in what you do (like sexual orientiation). So a systematic discrimination is hard to implement.

Of course, lying carries it’s own cost…

This argument, that the President is the head of a church, no matter how “tolerant” or informal, is basically unconstitutional.

This “Church of America” idea is very funny, starting with there not being such an entity, continuing with the image of all kinds of sectarian shehengians, and not ending with the (not very comfortable, but still funny) idea that these things have historically (after causing much bloodshed) led to a very secular populance.

JPlum: I guess American Chrsitianity has had a reputation as being… childishly overenthusiastic for a while.

I noticed that in the mid-eighties, when I first met people who had actually been to the US. It was kind of traumatic, though not as much as discovering that all those die-hard reactionaries were right about Amercian militarism.

We had religious education in school for years, and while it was one of those easy-way-to-improve-your-average-grade classes, calling it “Jesus talks” would have made the average fourth grader feel that their intelligence was insulted. (Also, it taught the useful skill of reading text for meaning instead of plot, and introduced the class to non-literal readings and metaphors. Looking back, well worth it.)

against cooking a kid in its’ mothers’ milk as was done by the worshippers of Astare.

I love Fred and Ginger as much as the next person, but there’s no way I can watch a movie and hope my kid is gonna hold still long enough in the pot for me to squeeze out enough from these titties to make a good sauce…

What temp to bake in oven- 350 or 300? Onions or scallions? Covered pot to keep from drying out or just a nice butter crumb casserole topping?

Gah, bring on Friday music; these Thursday cooking blogs are confusing me!

religion’s momentum comes from its ability to justify social structures, especially those that have no other justification, like racism or sexism. But don’t forget Christopher Hitchens, here to prove that atheist sexism is alive and well. I think a lot of the “science for choads” crowd may well be atheists, trying to find a science-oid justification for their bigotry.