Religion has been getting a bad rap. But it’s not Religion that’s the problem. It’s Faith. Faith extolled as unassailable virtue. Faith in the light of conflicting or even contradictory evidence. That’s actually the psychiatric definition of delusion.

Cling to any other such belief (in light of invalidating evidence), and people will rightfully worry about you. For example, that there is someone you can’t see who is telling you to do things…  But call it your “religious faith” and all is forgiven. In fact, it is blasphemy to question you about it. Rude, and improper.

And all of this would be fine, if it weren’t for those TRUE believers. We in western culture are so used to lying about our “faith” that we cannot even recognize the real thing when it slams into our buildings with jets. True believers truly, really, really truly believe. True believers think rape victims should be forced to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and will gladly blow themselves up just to take a few infidels with them. We can’t begin to understand them, so we label them “wingnuts,” or “the fringe.”

Then, we turn around and praise “the faithful,” without question. This is not good.

A society that condemns “fanatical” belief with one hand while shielding “believers” from inquiry with the other is perpetuating and enabling the central problem facing the modern world: that True Believers (the real kind, immune to evidence or inquiry) are potentially the most dangerous individuals on the planet.