Well, I managed to post--and re-edit--the last entry without including a few items I afterward realized I'd meant to stick in.

Here's one: It's been said that religious unbelief requires as much faith as its opposite. To this I'd like to add that, while religious beliefs are often regarded as "comforting" by those who regard all such as obsolete, a *lack* of beliefs can also be seen as comforting in its own way.

On a related subject, I wish to recognize what I call the "Feuerbach test" for atheism. It seems 19th-century theologian Ludwig Feuerbach (or "Frazzlebeard the Great," as I wrote next to his encyclopedia portrait years ago) said something to the effect that he who believes in moral right and wrong is no true atheist.