Richard Dawkins
“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where’s the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense.”
—Richard Dawkins, “Has the World Changed?” Guardian (London), October 11, 2001
Monicks: Unleashed 
Dear Monica – I love your spirit – in the non-religious sense of course. Christian fundamentalism is most strongly experienced in the US – in what is often described as the Bible Belt. A force that is practically absent in Europe, which is only nominally Christian. I believe the US ascription to religion is not unrelated to the birth of the US that took place in the 18th & 19th centuries at the expense of the Native Americans. Modern US citizens find it easier to excuse the genocide if they seek refuge in religious history and can usefully describe their victims as godless heathens – which also explains their irrational hatred of atheists. Not for nothing do US citizens go back in their own history just a couple of hundred years and then leap across the Atlantic ocean to embrace 17th century Europe epitomised by Shakespeare. If it wasn’t for US patronage of Shakespeare hardly anybody in the UK would have heard of him. It was even US citizen and actor/director Sam Shepherd who was responsible for the rebuilding of London’s Shakespearian Theatre The Globe. Not that I’m suggesting Sam was motivated by the needs of religion. The Soviet Union was routinely described by the god botherers as the home of godless atheists. More recently, US polls show that a woman, a homosexual or someone of an ethnic background, almost regardless of their politics, would get elected ahead of an atheist. I believe it is guilt that underpins the apparent US love affair with Jesus. Since the founding of the US, religious carpetbaggers/exploiters of the gullible, have resurrected the fear of hell and damnation and this has been stirred into the poisonous mix. Perhaps it is people of lower than average intelligence, those that have trouble thinking, that have been most susceptible to this propaganda. I’d very much welcome your comments. Best wishes @cosmiclandmine