Scott Adams proposes a plan to rid the world of religious extremism

I have often thought that America’s strict rule about not teaching religion in schools is responsible for the fact that the more fervant forms of christianity are more widespread in america than they are in europe. In english schools religious education is (was?) compulsory and usually took the form of comparative religion and the history of religion.

I expect that, if people knew more about the origins of their respective religions, they would be far less likely to adopt fundamentalist positions. A timeline that takes in the origins of the pentateuch, the early christian synods, the arian heresy, the filioque clause and the spanish inquisition would innoculate most kids against some of the wackier ideas that masquerade as religion.

Did the same Andrew Sullivan who wrote this…

My own view is that conservatism is fundamentally rooted in skepticism about the human mind and its capacity to change society. So it’s basically resistant to large-scale change, but, on the rare occasions that such change happens, is necessary and turns out okay, conservatives can live with it.

…and this …

A government’s only concern should be raising revenue for the basic tasks of government; and it should do so by as neutral and fair a scheme as possible. Any more ambitious scheme should be queried and nit-picked until it dies. Any proposal designed to enforce some abstract notion of “social justice” would never pass the skeptical conservative’s sniff test.

…also write this…

Our job will not be finished in two more years; maybe not in twenty. But this is America. It can be done. Bringing the Arab and Muslim world into the new millennium is a pre-requisite for our own security and the world’s. We must finish the job.

?

On the same day ?