My last vestige of 'hands off religion' respect disappeared in the smoke and choking dust of September 11, 2001, followed by the 'National Day of Prayer,' when prelates and pastors did their tremulous Martin Luther King impersonations and urged people of mutually incompatible faiths to hold hands, united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in the first place.

The fear of Hell is a very powerful motivation.

Religions do make claims about the universe--the same kinds of claims that scientists make, except they're usually false.

All the great religions have a place for awe, for ecstatic transport at the wonder and beauty of creation.

A God capable of continuously monitoring and controlling the individual status of every particle in the universe cannot be simple. His existence is going to need a mammoth explanation in its own right.

The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything, for it simply postulates what we are trying to explain.

If you look up at the Milky Way through the eyes of Carl Sagan, you get a feeling in your chest of something greater than yourself. And it is. But it's not supernatural.