Righteous Torture?

I certainly don't want my writings to ever become single-issue, but some things are worth noting.

Now that we have a US President that was raised in an atheist home and actually mentioned "nonbelievers" in his inaugural address, action is being taken on the torture that was carried out by the previous, much more pious, administration. This is not surprising to anyone in the atheist/rationalist/humanist/etc. communities, as studies and surveys (along with common sense) consistently show the overall moral inferiority of the pious.

A recent Pew survey, located at http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=156, showed a correlation between level of approval of torture and religiosity.

See the importance of separation of church and state? The more power these people have, the more humanity suffers. Give them the power of armies and taxation? You'd have to be insane (Or Iranian). Fortunately, most of America's founding fathers realized this. It didn't take a great "leap of faith" (pardon the pun) for them, as they saw the results of religious persecution all over the colonies. The treatment of Jews and Catholics was pretty rough in general. And Anglicans were beating the hell out of the Baptists (literally), until James Madison stuck up for them (and was able to prevent taxation for supporting churches in Virginia).

And, of course, we must remember that the Christians who came over on the Mayflower were trying to escape religious persecution from... you guessed it: other Christians. These people can't even keep from killing each other (read a history of Ireland, for one), and they have few problems with torturing people even in these "modern" times. The further they are away from government power, the better it is for everyone (especially small boys and anyone who won't bow to their twisted mythology).

The evidence keeps mounting, but it will take an awful lot of nails to close this coffin. Don't let that get you down, though. Keep smiling and being nice. :-)