"There is an assault on faith and an assault on religious liberty that we see across this country and it has never been as bad as it is right now," he said, claiming that "radical atheists and liberals" are "driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square."The "he" referred to here is Senator Ted Cruz speaking to talk radio's slavery apologist Jan Mickelson.
I have explained here before my contention that the only guarantee of religious liberty is the separation of church and state, but people like Senator Cruz don't believe my claim that such separation is a curb on government power, a power that they rail against, and yet buttress whenever it suits their purposes.
But I have to admit something here. I am constantly trying to explain to the defenders of religion that their method of keeping their freedom is destined to fail, and yet, as an atheist, nothing would please me more than "driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square." There. I have been honest about the way I feel, and yet I am nothing like the Taliban.
An atheist Taliban would ban religion, just as the Soviets did, and just as the actual Taliban seeks to ban any religion except Islam, and just as American right-wing Christians would love to establish Christianity as the official American religion.
Certainly, I think that religion is, over all, a negative force because, as I have explained, it insists on the truth of falsehoods. But I am not, nor are any atheists I am aware of, dedicated to forbidding the practice of religion. I can only hope that reasoned arguments against the existence of God, and the harm in religion, will be persuasive.
