I am one of the few people I know of who has argued in print that torture may be an ethical necessity in our war on terror.

Faith drives a wedge between ethics and suffering. Where certain actions cause no suffering at all, religious dogmatists still maintain that they are evil and worthy of punishment. . . . And yet, where suffering and death are found in abundance their causes are often deemed to be good. . . . This inversion of priorities not only victimizes innocent people and squanders scarce resources; it completely falsifies our ethics.

As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population.

We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps.

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.