I attack religion in the majority of my writings, to answer Mark's question, because I believe that the current trends in the world point towards an increasing march towards theocracy. This applies to the Religious Right as well as to Islamic fundamentalists, who both seek to influence the political process to implement laws that are derived from their religious principles. People have a right to practice whatever religion they wish, but they do not have the right to implement laws forcing others to observe their religious practices. The use of government power to enforce religious dictates is the true--using Lee's description of me-- "undesirable," not my alarm over it.

Ruth from Georgia replies to my opposition to "abstinence only" education with an analogy to a parachute that has a low failure rate. What Ruth fails to consider is the fact that people are going to have sex despite any amount of education regarding abstinence and it is much better to educate them about contraceptives (even if they are not 100% effective) along with advocacy for abstinence. If one is going to jump out of a plane any parachute is better than free-falling or being indoctrinated with the idea that parachutes are not effective.