I reckon religion is a scourge, gz. The sooner we get it out of our system the better; particularly from positions with some political power. If we are talking about bring secular democracy around the world, then let's do it properly: Get rid of Bush's nuts out of the W/house so that we can ask the mullahs to get out of their parliaments without us being hypocritical. Chip away at the power of all religion so that PEOPLE (ie politicians) can be accountable rather than God, who's made the scapegoat for every disaster begun and completed by people. Either we believe in god or we don't. The fundamentalist of all religions will tell you that you have no choice of being a "moderate" believer. Either you believe to the point of putting your life on the block or you don't believe at all. Extremely dangerous stuff, whether it's Christianity or Islam or Judaism. Get rid of it all. Why not declare the current counting system valid but call it BZ or AZ. Before Zero year and After Zero year. Lovely and boring but so it should be. It is just a point of reference and nothing more. No hero's name, no God's name, no Hysterical event's name! Just a point of temporal compass.
