QUOTE:Interesting that you, non-aligned lefty, agree that religion is not the root of all evil.

Not that interesting, though. If you believe that religion is a human construct and that (wo)man created god in his/her own image, it follows that just as people are capable of committing both the most appalling atrocities and the most humbling acts of generosity, equally they're capable of doing either in the name of religion (or any other construct you wish to substitute). This pleasingly simplistic concept is made more complicated by things like heirarchy, authority, money and power dynamics, but I believe it essentially holds true.

There are people with religious views on the left (not everyone is a dyed in the wool Trotskyite!). By and large they are deeply embarrassed by the religious right.

Personally I don't believe in God. But then, I also don't believe in alien abduction, the Loch Ness monster, the New World Order and so on and so forth. I also don't believe conspiracy theories are the preserve of the left - they are equally, if not more likely, to come from the far right (plenty of them seem to be about various imagined misdeeds of Jewish people). I do think they tend to come from a position of percieved powerlessness in the face of a seemingly overwhelmingly powerful 'system', though. Participation in trying to change the world for the better is usually an effective antidote to conspiracyitis.

NAL