Definitely a good link, thanks---but note that as much as I enjoy reading Mr. Hitchens on just about any topic, religion is not one of them. He's about as twisted about religion as the braids in a five-year-old's pigtail. (No, I didn't get that from Dan Rather.) As such he's a consistently poor advocate for the "more secular" side of the argument. For example, on hardball the other day he made the claim that James Watt was a "dominionist" and therefore did not consider the environment worth protecting. The only problem is, that claim has been soundly refuted---to such an extent that Bill Moyers apologized on the air and to James Watt himself about it.

Excellent link. All I can add is Amen.
(well someone had to say it).

I agree for the most part, although I do think that a devout Catholic would have a hard time getting confirmed for (say) Ruth Bader Ginsburg's spot on the Supreme Court, no matter how highly qualified he (or more likely, she) was.

I do agree that an atheist would have an even harder time. Indeed, that was the absolutely silliest part of the movie "The Contender", when the character said she didn't go to church because she didn't believe in fairy tales. End of nomination in the real world, but in Tinseltown it was just the beginning.