As long as authoritarian behavior justified (or excused) on religious grounds is given more deference than authoritarian behavior in general, then the unmerited respect society holds religion in is a part of the problem.

As long as authoritarians can use religious rhetoric to rally people who really ought to know better into defending their abuses, then sorry, but religion really is a problem.

And as long as religious rhetoric is inseparably laced with a number of malicious social engineering tricks, it will always be under suspicion by people who don't like to be brain-hacked.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.