I've learnt two things today - Steve Shaw (1) has a sense of humour, and (2) is not an "evangelical atheist".

Aye..............right.

Well, Dave, as I said, I react to stuff posted here rather than start evangelical threads. I suppose it depends on how you define evangelical. I'm definitely not up for recruiting people. I don't give enough of a damn to do that. Actually, I wouldn't know what I'd be recruiting them to in any case.   

Do we let books, be they the Bible, al Q'uran, Das Kapital, or Origins of Species ia open our minds, or close our minds?

That's not the way to consider books. There are crap books like Harry Potter that will diminish us all, and there are good books like Origin that provide edification through knowledge and critical study. And a lot more in between. Try to be a little less disingenuous. There are more than fifty shades of grey, you know. And, if you must insist on putting an apostrophe in, it's Al-Qur'an.