I almost bought it today, but got distracted talking to a friend at the bookstore until they closed. Anyway, below are a few links I thought somebunal might be interested in.

"Not one of you reflects, that you ought
know your Gods before you worship them."

An Apology For Atheism:
Addressed To Religious Investigators Of Every Denomination By One Of Its Apostles.
Charles Southwell, 1846
project gutenberg

It would be absurd to doubt that religion has an important bearing on all the relations and conditions of life. The connexion between religions faith and political practice is, in truth, far closer than is generally thought. Public opinion has not ripened into a knowledge that religious error is the intangible but real substratum of all political injustice. Though the 'schoolmaster' has done much, there still remain and hold some away among us, many honest and energetic assertors of 'the rights of man,' who have to learn that a people in the fetters of superstition, can never achieve political freedom. Many of these reformers admit the vast, the incalculable influence of Mahommedanism on the politics of Constantinople, and yet persist in acting as if Christianity had little or nothing to do with the politics of England.... (more)

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President Bush used to be content to revel in his own ignorance. Now he wants to share it with America's schoolchildren.
- Jacob Weisberg, Evolution vs. Religion


Finally,

Seventh Day Agnostics Arise:
You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Stereotype
Sam Smith
Progressive Review

So completely is this belief system excluded from our national consciousness that we do not even have a name for it. So let's give it one, at least for this article: shafarism - standing for secularism, humanism, atheism, free thought, agnosticism, and rationalism.

Shafars are 850 million people around the globe and at least 20 million at home who are ignored, insulted, or commonly considered less worthy than those who adhere to faiths based on mythology and folklore rather than on logic, empiricism, verifiable history, and science.

This might be considered just another of the world's many injustices were it not for the fact that the globe is currently exceptionally endangered by a madness driven by false prophets of major traditional mythologies such as bin Laden, Bush and Sharon. Seldom has organized religion been so ubiquitously harmful. Even in our own country the dismantling of our republic and its constitution is being led by a extremist Christian cabal that not only is a political travesty but a mockery of its own professed faith.

In short, this is not a wise time for those of alternative beliefs to be banned from the airwaves and the public prints, especially since they have contributed so little to the current troubles.... (more)

Enjoy...