[Bainbridge]

It really bothers you, doesn't it?

There is a reason that you are unable to show a calm, non-hysterical attitude towards Christianity. Afterall, if it is silly nonsense then what difference could it possibly make to you what people who believe it think or do? What is it about Christianity that makes people like you ( an admirer of Noam Chomsky?!) to become so unhinged?

[GAB-1955]

For such people, politics and power are the opiates. A strong religious faith gives people the courage to stand up to tyrants and People's Commissars. If there is a life after death, then there is no ultimate control a State may have over people. And this is why men like Bonhoeffer and Solzhenitsyn have been persecuted by dictatorships; why China insists on a toothless, "patriotic" church, and quails in fear at groups like Falun Gong. If there is a God, then they can't express ultimate control.