We're pretty lucky here in the UK; we don't suffer from evangelicals a lot, since the Church of England adopted rational religion two hundred and fifty years ago. It's sad for Slag; he really believes what he's saying, and one of the requirements is that he's got to "bear witness". Like many other emotionally convinced people, he can't tell real conviction fromn a bad dose of bellyache, and hasn't the courage to consider that there's a possibility that he could be mistaken.

It would be nice if we could have a conversation with him; I've asked him why he thinks an arbitrary and capricious God is good, but he hasn't come up with an answer yet. He can't of course; Calvinists tried half a millennium ago and failed. And no, I don't hate God and I'm not angry with him, any more than I'm angry with the monster under the bed.

I find it sad when religion leads to the blank refusal to entertain rationality, not because I want everyone to be converted to something, but because it's dangerous. The Aztecs who tore the hearts out of thousands of living victims were only doing what they truly believed their religion demanded of them. The Carthaginians who sacrificed their firstborn children; the iconoclasts who destroyed religious works of art in old Byzantium; the Inquisitors who racked suspects to save their souls; the Moslems who killed themselves to destroy the enemies of God; all were, according to their own beliefs, doing good.

In which context I see our current stupid trump of an Archbishop of Canterbury has called for sharia law to be introduced to Britain. Idiot, but he has a seat in the House of Lords by right of his job.