I refer of course to Christopher Hitchens' book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – his thesis is rather self-explanatory.

Good example for the second edition of the book: the phony Olympics bible scandal. I first noticed this yesterday in a reference to a press release of the Catholic News Agency, which reported that the Beijing Olympics folks would not be allowing athletes to have bibles at the games.

This rumor was explained/denounced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other officials fairly rapidly, and by all accounts, this story should not have gone anywhere. Good, sane writeups can also be found on the 2008 Olympics Blog and the Foreign Policy blog.

But of course, life doesn't work the way it should when religious zealots are involved. Anticipating the fun, I did a quick search and found some entertaining stuff that is already out in the ether. Here are two of my favorites:

1. From the Catholic League's racist and anti-semite Bill Donohue: "[W]e won’t let them get away with this." Go get 'em, Bill. <LINK>

2. Our old friend U.S. Congressman Thad McCotter (R-Nutjob) introduced a House resolution condemning government restrictions on religion because he was so upset over this. He then made me really proud to be an American with this bit of authentic frontier gibberish:

As the world stumbles toward the communist propaganda extravaganza labeled the Beijing Olympics, somewhere Chairman Mao is looking up at us and laughing.

Believe it or not, this guy is not only out walking the streets, is not only gainfully employed, but is actually holding a high position in the government. You notice, by the way, that McCotter lets us know exactly where he thinks Mao resides in the afterlife. How cute! <LINK>

Here's an idea for an interesting experiment. Next May or June, conduct a poll somewhere in the U.S. (for fun, let's say Mississippi). Ask the following question: "Will Olympic athletes be permitted to have bibles in their possession at the Olympic games in Beijing?" Any guesses as to the results? (Hint: a significant percentage of Americans still think that Iraqis were responsible for 9/11 — rumors have long lives.)