richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

WHAT'S WRONG WITH RELIGION? 291
of her funeral, proclaiming: 'God Hates Fags &C Fag-Enablers!
Ergo, God hates Coretta Scott King and is now tormenting her with
fire and brimstone where the worm never dies and the fire is never
quenched, and the smoke of her torment ascendeth up for ever and
ever.' 123 It is easy to write Fred Phelps off as a nut, but he has plenty
of support from people and their money. According to his own
website, Phelps has organized 22,000 anti-homosexual demonstrations
since 1991 (that's an average of one every four days) in the
USA, Canada, Jordan and Iraq, displaying slogans such as
'THANK GOD FOR AIDS'. A particularly charming feature of his
website is the automated tally of the number of days a particular,
named, deceased homosexual has been burning in hell.
Attitudes to homosexuality reveal much about the sort of
morality that is inspired by religious faith. An equally instructive
example is abortion and the sanctity of human life.
FAITH AND THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
Human embryos are examples of human life. Therefore, by
absolutist religious lights, abortion is simply wrong: full-fledged
murder. I am not sure what to make of my admittedly anecdotal
observation that many of those who most ardently oppose the
taking of embryonic life also seem to be more than usually
enthusiastic about taking adult life. To be fair, this does not, as a
rule, apply to Roman Catholics, who are among the most
vociferous opponents of abortion. The born-again George W.
Bush, however, is typical of today's religious ascendancy. He, and
they, are stalwart defenders of human life, as long as it is embryonic
life (or terminally ill life) - even to the point of preventing medical
research that would certainly save many lives. 124 The obvious
ground for opposing the death penalty is respect for human life.
Since 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ban on the death
penalty, Texas has been responsible for more than one-third of all
executions in all fifty states of the Union. And Bush presided over
more executions in Texas than any other governor in the state's
history, averaging one death every nine days. Perhaps he was simply