"John Larkin" wrote in message
...
Overall, religion has done more good than harm.

Perfectly reasonable opinions, John, but I think that's impossible to prove
or disprove.

And since it's
probably wired into most humans, it's probably impossible to
eliminate.

Yes.

In my personal experience, believers are usually nicer people than
atheists.

What do you think of Penn Jillette? He's an (outspoken) atheist, but he's
also one of the more humanitarian guys I'm aware of. Among other things, he
organizes a huge blood drive in Las Vegas annually, and as a bit of a bribe
has given away many thousands of tickets to his show in return. (I.e.,
that's real money he's giving up there -- probably over a million bucks by
now --, since there's a very good chance the seats could have been sold if
they hadn't been given away.)

He also in no way looks down on people who are religious and is criticizes
atheists who do so.

If the religious people of this world were generally like Phil and Joerg and
the athetists were like Penn Jillette, I doubt we'd have many problems at
all...

---Joel