The author’s concluding lines

>> William James, the great American philosopher of religion, made a useful distinction between healthy-minded and sick-souled religiousness. Let's not harm the healthy minded in our attempt to cure the sick-souled.<<

seem to indicate that she prefers William James to Christopher Hitchens on these matters. I cannot think of a believer - including her, apparently too emotional, Catholic friend - who would not have the same preference.

On yers SM.

I have always assumed you were of the 'believer' mob.

Good to see we agree on this vital issue.

Religion in Australia steals $30b from our back pockets via the ATO system, and produce nothing useful in return.

All their 'charity' work could be done without being tinged with the lies of religion, by anyone with a desire to help their community.

The irony is that Dr Merdith is absolutely sure of what she believes or does not believe. Now that's not very rational for a rationalist who deny absolutes. Then again only a fool says in their heart there is no god when creation screams evidence in their face every day. Self Righteousess does however blind a person from seeing things as they are.

btw hopefully Hitchens will wake up to his stupidity and ask his evangelical doctor for spiritual healing as he seeks physcial healing. He certainly needs it.

"Much like being over weight, it is partially self inflicted, largely curable, and limits the sufferer ability (in this case rational thought)"

"Anyone who believes in God is just being intellectually dishonest"

I am supprised at many of the comments here. I am not supprised at the reaction of the authors friend one bit. If the 'humour' had been stating to a woman that all women should stay either in the kitchen or the bedroom, or that a 'black man' should refer to all 'white men' as master, or that all homosexual men should act like the sallon hair dresser sterotype we would not even bat an eyelid and say that the reaction was well deserved. However when it comes to religion it seems that anything can be said and done and it is all alright. The above quotes show that the general concept of those who believe in religion are that of spineless idiots who need a crutch in order just to survive. It is a insult of the highest order, which any rational person should be able to see, and would be comparable to saying that a woman is only good for cooking and making children.

I would say that the author needs to do a bit more work on being a rationalist, it seems that the most rational explaination as to why the reaction occured is staring her right in the face

I was a member of our country town high school debating team.

The other 3 members were all daughters of ministers of different religions. All three spent much of our debate preparation time trying to convert me to their belief.

After listening to them, & doing some study, I could still not believe in any god.

What I did find was that societies based on christian beliefs are mostly kinder & more supportive of their populations than those not so based. Despite all the dreadful things done in the name of christianity, it does, today, appear to be a force for good in the world.

Therefor, I suppose you could say I am a believer in christianity, just not the god stuff that goes with it.

runner,

What evidence?