This should go without saying, but I hope they tried to select kids with roughly the same taste for marshmallows. When I was a kid, you couldn't have paid me to eat a marshmallow. Even today, I don't particularly care for them. Except in rice krispy treats.

Make no mistake, EVERYONE in civilized society pays the price for religion. The 9/11/2001 hijackers were fundamentalists in their religion.

I can't argue that. Religion has been at the core of MANY conflicts throughout the history of mankind. However, at the risk of demonstrating Godwin's Law, I would also point out that Darwinism was, at least nominally, at the core of the Holocaust. And social Darwinism played a big part in the Cultural Revolution in China and Stalin's purges in the Soviet Union. So it's not as if scientific extremism doesn't exist, either.

yes, funny that, the president that believed this was a "born again christian."

FDR and LBJ were born again Christians? I was referring to the wholesale transfer of wealth from workers to seniors known as Social Security and Medicare (aka vote purchasing).

No not at all. *Any* belief that is not supported by reasonable evidence is absurd.

I believe that chocolate is superior to vanilla but I have absolutely no evidence to support that belief. So I guess it's absurd. Furthermore, who gets to judge what's reasonable? You, again?

*I* didn't, society has adopted this benchmark.

Obviously not, at least not in the United States. The vast majority of Americans are theists. Why would you cling to such an absurd belief in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

That we silently accept the absurd beliefs as something other than delusions.

Oh what a terrible burden that must be for you. I'm so sorry that the theists have imposed this horrible punishment on you for nothing more than exhibiting "common sense" (which, if the statistics are to be believed, are far from common).

People hold all sorts of absurd beliefs. A fairly large majority of Americans believe it's a good idea to take a significant portion of workers' compensation and give it the wealthiest generation in the history of the world. *sigh* To each their own.

You're essentially claiming that you (and people like you) are empowered to decide which absurd beliefs are delusional and which ones aren't. How'd you earn that right? Did Gaea, herself, come down and ordain you Decider of Delusions? I hate to think what will happen when your Priesthood of Phantasy starts to decide that each other is delusional...

In any case, I don't envy you that responsibility. If only there were some way you could get out of it... some way you could just live and let live... Maybe some day we'll finally reach a point where people are free to believe what they want to believe and you'll finally be relieved of your duty.

I don't have to be tolerant of the belief in Zeus. I can see flat out, it is bunk.

I'm curious how you can "see" that Zeus is bunk. You may not believe he exists (personally, I don't, either), but that's no proof. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. To claim otherwise is unscientific.

If I say, there is no god and I will not entertain any such nonsense, people are irrational. They will say I am intolerant.

If I say there IS a god and I will not entertain any atheist nonsense, people are irrational. They will say I am intolerant. Your point?

they are expecting special treatment for their own neurosis.

Exactly what special treatment do theists expect? And what neurosis are you speaking of? I think it's pretty callous to call a belief which you do not share "neurosis". You and I may disagree on a lot of things. Does that make both of us neurotic?