Rich and Strange Aeons

I don't think we can afford to "put up" with virulent anything, and think that "I'm right and the rest of you who think differently are wrong and evil" is not a productive position to take, even if one of the folks taking that position does turn out to be right - that's only about positions that are not subject to verification, of course. In your reply to fanw, I disagree with the quote on the "intellectual treason" of trying to confuse a "physicist's" spirituality with one full of mythology. There is common ground, and one reduces the fears and hatreds between different groups by emphasising it. Or by subjugating, exiling, or eliminating the other group. The examples you mention where folks are getting along (and people do pretty well here in the N.E. neck of the US) foster a spirit of tolerance of other faiths. My objection to Dawkins and the "intellectual treason" stand is that it is a needlessly intolerant position.