"It is time now to get serious about religion - all religion - and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams."

Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian (what a motherlode today!):

Enlightenment values are in peril not because these mad beliefs are really growing but because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason. Extreme superstition breeds extreme action. Those who believe they alone know the only way, truth and life will always feel justified in doing anything in its name. You would, wouldn't you, if you alone had the magic answer to everything? If religions teach that life after death is better then it is hardly surprising that some crazed followers will actually believe it.

Full article here.