[Jeff Higgins]

A 3-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the sake of comparison, more than 100,000 cells in the brain of a fly. The embryos that are destroyed in stem-cell research do not have brains, or even neurons. Consequently, there is no reason to believe they can suffer their destruction in any way at all.

Harris is cherry-picking his science. He fails to mention the unique DNA that is adopted by the embryo upon conception. Science maintains that unique DNA = unique life. It is true that these embryos cannot "suffer their destruction in any way at all". If that criteria were to be used to eliminate others that cannot "suffer their destruction", where would that leave us? Thank God that is not the nature of the Christian argument on this one.

The truth is that President Bush's unjustified religious beliefs about the human soul are, at this very moment, prolonging the scarcely endurable misery of tens of millions of human beings.

A vastly over-simplified attempt to connect the dots for his faithful, anti-Bush readers. There is far more to it that that. Bush's religious beliefs were certainly not the only infuence in his decision, and to make the direct connection that his veto = tens of millions suffering needlessly is a bit of a stretch, to say the least. Science marches on; just wihout Federal funding. Why didn't Harris mention that?

Given our status as a superpower, our material wealth and the continuous advancements in our technology, it seems safe to say that the president of the United States has more power and responsibility than any person in history. It is worth noting, therefore, that we have elected a president who seems to imagine that whenever he closes his eyes in the Oval Office—wondering whether to go to war or not to go to war, for instance—his intuitions have been vetted by the Creator of the universe.

Wow. This one does not even deserve a response. Harris is, once again, re-iterating what all of you "know" about Bush. Can I hear an "AMEN!!"?

Speaking to a small group of supporters in 1999, Bush reportedly said, "I believe God wants me to be president." Believing that God has delivered you unto the presidency really seems to entail the belief that you cannot make any catastrophic mistakes while in office. One question we might want to collectively ponder in the future: do we really want to hand the tiller of civilization to a person who thinks this way Religion is the one area of our discourse in which people are systematically protected from the demand to give good evidence and valid arguments in defense of their strongly held beliefs. And yet these beliefs regularly determine what they live for, what they will die for and—all too often—what they will kill for.

Already addressed this one.

Consequently, we are living in a world in which millions of grown men and women can rationalize the violent sacrifice of their own children by recourse to fairy tales. We are living in a world in which millions of Muslims believe that there is nothing better than to be killed in defense of Islam.

Let's not forget to implicitely lump Christians in with Muslim zealots. Not only do these Muslims represent a very minute faction within their own religion, they have nothing to do with Christianity. I guess it is easy enough for athiests to paint all religions with the same broad brush of intolerance, however. We are all the same to them, after all. All zealots; all capable of untold destruction. Just look at the Crusades, right?

We are living in a world in which millions of Christians hope to soon be raptured into the stratosphere by Jesus so that they can safely enjoy a sacred genocide that will inaugurate the end of human history. In a world brimming with increasingly destructive technology, our infatuation with religious myths now poses a tremendous danger. And it is not a danger for which more religious faith is a remedy.

Harris ends with what might be his most wildly inflamatory remark. Might as well finish with a bang, I guess. No one is hoping for any kind of "sacred genocide". The Bible clearly states it is God's will that all men be saved. I don't know a single Christian that would not want the same thing. I don't know a single Christian that is arrogant enough to believe they have any idea what resides in the hearts of their fellow men. To imply that we look forward to the day when most of mankind is wiped out and we get our special little spots in heaven is absurd. Again, however, it feeds the athiest myth of how they perceive Christians.