Bill, you ask this question about where values come from if there is nobody effectively in charge of it all. The short answer is that the origins of morality lie within us all, they are a product of biological and cultural evolution, just like religion.
As for JI’s comment, you’re talking in tongues again, not sure what you’re on about.
But, human rights and the freedom to believe in whatever, are important. People can and will believe in all sorts of weird things, but creeds based on a pre-modern understanding of the world, such as the idiot evangelists and their representatives in the film, have no place in public / political life. This is not the Middle East, and anyone who believes in Armageddon, second comings, while denying evolution, is seriously unfit for any kind of public role.
Point is, we deserve to know what our elected representatives really think. Do they really believe in this type of superstition, mythology and mumbo jumbo? Some would resent being open about it, perhaps aggressively. But as above, the violent ones won’t be the atheists.
So, let’s hear it for reason and science, and get rid of prejudice and racism for which religion is so often used as a fig-leaf.
