In the past I too have claimed that religion is a mental illness. I am not making that claim at present.

Religion is incompatable with moral behavior. If God exists and is omnipotent, God knows our actions before we act. If our actions are known before we act, we have no free will. If we have no free will, we cannot be moral agents. Being forced to do good is not doing good, being forced to to ill is not doing ill. Morality is a choice. God takes that choice away.

I do claim that religion is a cause of violence, not merely that it co-occurs with violence. There are direct lines of causality between what is commanded in a religion, how secular or superstitious a nation is, and what acts of violence are carried out in that nation. Attacking the acts of violence yeilds individuals in prison. Attacking theocracy yeilds better results. Attacking the root problem, religion, yeilds the best results. I aim my fire up and down the chain of causality, but I know aiming closer to the middle and the root is most important. Attacking theocracy as the central concern is a good choice, and one that I share. I gained this perspective after reading The Raving Atheist, a blog that has gone into suspended animation.

Agreed that libertarian thinking breaks down when it comes to parents and children. I have no answers here other than getting a vasectomy a few years ago so my need to make those sorts of decisions is lessened.

Note that the parents of the girl that died recently are members of the same church I wrote about last year. Institutionalized multi-generation child sacrifice with the indulgence of the State, happening a short drive from where I’m sitting right now. Boiling rage is the appropriate responce.