[Tribune7]

But the original point, and the only one that brought me into this mini-thread, was whether the atheist could have a love of his own life, and the lives of others.

And I'm not disagreeing with you or Piltdown. My point is that culture has a huge influence on attitudes. Our culture is Christian -- although much regression has been occurred during the last 40 years to make it more Roman.

You have people in this country who might declare themselves atheist because of a particulary bad experience with a church -- which I don't think is infrequent. But they still accept the values of a Christian society.

On the other hand if we institutionalize atheism, or paganism or anything expressly anti-JudeoChristian -- which I think is the agenda for some in this country -- you will end up with a hell on earth.

[PatrickHenry]

My point is that culture has a huge influence on attitudes. Our culture is Christian -- although much regression has been occurred during the last 40 years to make it more Roman.

Agreed with respect to the influence of culture; but I don't know what you mean about the Roman part. We are now less explicitly Christian, but there was always more to our culture than that -- we've been influenced by the civilizations of Greece and Rome, plus the development of the scientific method, free enterprise, constitutional government, etc.

On the other hand if we institutionalize atheism, or paganism or anything expressly anti-JudeoChristian -- which I think is the agenda for some in this country -- you will end up with a hell on earth.

Not likely to happen. We can't "institutionalize" any sect as long as we have the 1st Amendment.