^{“…. I believe in God. My church is non-denominational. Our pastor is a good man. He looks after his parishioners. At our church we sing hymns, we pray, we organize fund raising events for charity. Every one of us is there voluntarily. We choose to believe in our religion. How dare SMART society or anyone else try to tell us we shouldn’t be allowed to worship in our own way.}

^{In campaigning for the abolition of all religions it is YOU who is being intolerant and extremist – you are worse than some of the religions you highlight.”}

^{Linda M, Shrewsbury, England.}

^{In one sense Linda M. is quite right. SMART society is intolerant and extremist when it comes to trying to eliminate all religion. But does that necessarily make us wrong?}

^{During the last few months of the 2nd World War there were high-powered voices in Germany who were trying to make a separate peace with the Western Allies. To achieve this peace, Germany would have undoubtedly agreed to pay reparations, give up all the territory it had invaded and make other concessions regarding its future military capabilities. If these terms had been accepted, it would have represented an almost complete victory for the allies, it would have saved many thousands, maybe millions of lives, and it would have left the Germans free to continue fighting the Russians, a prospect that would have delighted many western military and political leaders!}

^{Even though it was becoming apparent that Stalin was an even more evil dictator than Hitler, the western allies rejected any idea of a separate or partial peace and instead demanded total and unconditional surrender from Germany. Did this make the allies “intolerant” or “extremist”? Of course! And were they right to be “intolerant” and “extremist”? Of course they were!}

^{Once it was accepted that the whole concept of Nazism was evil there could be no partial peace - even though there were some Nazi leaders who opposed Hitler (silently) and even some who tried to assassinate him.}

^{The same principle applies to organized religion. Once you accept that the whole concept of religious belief is evil, the fact that there are some religious leaders who are good people becomes irrelevant. There can be no partial peace with religion – no just getting rid of the bad ones – the whole thing has to go, just like the Third Reich!}

^{You, Linda M., may be a very good person. You may hold sincere beliefs about a God up in the sky. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you attend a church, or if you wear a cross on a chain or do anything that adds to the apparent legitimacy of organized religion, in S.M.A.R.T. society’s opinion, you are being part of the problem and not the cure. See also “Religious freedom – an oxymoron?” , “Right and Wrong” and “SMART quotes.”}