----- Original Message ----- From: "andie nachgeborenen" <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
I don't say it's not appropriate to keep the fanatics from imposing their beliefs on others. But if you want to see the vast majority of nonfanatical but religious Americans abandon unsupportable beliefs (the least of the problems with religion) and build communities based on reality, you will have to see what religion does for them and therefore why they believe it. And you will have to be in a position, and this is very difficult, to contribute to helping them find the things they find in religion in other institutions that are not based around religion. Otherwise you are wasting your breath.
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It is extremely unlikely that, in the US at least, any other institution will or could help people cope with the inevitability of their own death and the death of their loved ones. Vast swathes of the US populace seem ghastly afraid of death. No political philosophy or politics can deal with that.
Ian