runner, i suppose i have all this bile because i'm a godless atheist. what's your excuse?

Some contributors cannot tell what forces actually drive people to do cruel things. Nazism gained power and influence over the German people due mainly to the obscene conditions imposed on the German people by the victors in WW1.
If anyone wishes to find a precise comment on the reasons for the French Revolution they should read the closing paragraphs of A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens summed the situation accurately.
I know quite a few non-theists and I find their ethics quite superior to anyone who is willing to indoctrinate children. Teaching children to think clearly will improve their IQ by 6-7% and significantly improve their behaviour. About all churches do is undermine a child's self confidence by teaching them, when they are too young to understand and resist, that they are sinners.

Runner <" They are the most intolerant group in Australia. I would say they even surpass the militant muslims. They certainly kill a lot more people and especially unborn babies."

What? Yet again Runner, you manage to drag abortion into any subject brought up on these forums!

Are you suggesting here that most women who have abortions are atheists? Where is your proof on that? Any statistics?

No? What about the gem that atheists 'kill a lot more people'? Really?

Atheists don't believe in Gods, miracles or other such fantasies- they sound quite sane to me.

Slobodon Meshirtfront,
To put the Dawkins remark about Fielding in context, it was in relation to a remark made by Fielding when they both appeared on the Q and A panel last week.

Fielding admitted that he believed the Earth was only 10,000 years old and Dawkins was somewhat aghast that somebody who held such views could be qualified to be a Senator in a Government.

Although the "earthworm" comparison was a bit extreme, so is the notion that somebody who is making significant decisions for the whole country could display such a potential flaw in logic.

Would we feel comfortable if somebody who may hold the balance of legislative power was working on behalf of Xenu and the Galactic Federation or was prone to speaking in tongues or hearing voices?

I wish I were in the conference.

Nice to know the names of the celebrities who were non-believers. Among them Taslima Nasreen is closer home as she had stayed in our city -- Kolkata for a few years before she was hounded out by the Communist (?) state government and secular (?) central government of India on the fear of losing Muslim votes.

My complaint against Taslima is that she under pressure had withdrawn some pages unmasking Mohammed, founder of Islam, from one of her books.

My request to nonbelievers is to unite to form a political force since Religion is nothing but a powerful branch of the ruling class to control the masses.

Dawkins is being hypocritical . Darwin's hypothesis of evolution has never been proved scientifically. Like the anthropogenic global warming believers, the Darwin evolution believers have been conned by mere assertion.