A repeating thought is how can I afford NOT to read a compelling article or that provocative book about our troubled times or take time to watch a DVD given to me with the instruction, Youve got to see it?What do we forfeit or lose by passing up on great ideas and information given to us to digest, process and understand? Its immensely stimulating, of course, to be around bright people, or be afforded work study time and sabbaticals for deep reading. I drink in what I hear on the C-Span channels the long interviews, speeches, panel discussions and author talks at bookstores around the country. A requirement of being human is to be exposed to a plethora of ideas, process it and grow — never mind that it challenges the orthodoxy and absolutes that so many want protected and preserved. I can read three long pieces in an issue of Vanity Fair and get a high that comes from few reading adventures. Its transforming stuff. It reshapes thinking, reveals what can be found from relentless reporting and always makes me more guarded against the forces that quietly are at work to gain full control before our society awakes from its self-indulgence and distractions.Oh, to have the time and the money to travel to conferences across the country where all the authorities, pioneers and cutting-edge folks in countless fields lay it out in three days. My mail is full of brochures on conferences, typically far away with steep registration fees. Take this one that came in todays mail: The Secular Society and Its Enemies set for Nov. 9-11 at the New York Academy of Sciences in Manhattan, overlooking Ground Zero of 9/11. (www.centerforinquiry.net) Major speakers will be lawyer/author Alan Dershowitz, author Christopher Hitchens, longtime activist, historian and observer Nat Hentoff and Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers. The brochure has a provocative photo of the Statue of Liberty. Atop the Ladys lamp is a cross. Conference sponsors are the Center for Inquiry - Transnational, Free Inquiry and the Skeptical Inquirer magazineHere is some of the language of the materials: The world is finally waking up to the dangers of religious faith. Books defending reason and religious skepticism top the bestseller lists. Secular Muslims are standing up for freedom of thought. The secular perspective has finally gained currency in the media and in cross-cultural dialogue.It asserts that the world is increasingly mired in divisive religious strife and deadly sectarian battles.Despite the secular foundation of successful modern societies, radical religious fervor has reached an all-time high, and the world is waking up to the fact that belief can no longer be considered benign, asserts Paul Kurtz, founder of both The Center for Inquiry and the Council of Secular Humanism. When religion manifests its tenets in government, both democracy and modern science take a back seat to the voice of rigid ancient authority, and progress is halted. Kurtz is correct when he says that it cant be overstated that secular, non-theistic governments must be maintained. He warns against those who push for theocracy disguised as freedom, mythology as science and a literal interpretation of the Bible or the Quran as the basis to govern people of all beliefs. He warns of politicians who pander to the faithful and lift up intolerant and irrational beliefs as unquestioned virtues. Posing a great threat to religious and nonreligious people are those so convinced that their religious doctrines are too precious to be limited to just a faith group and belongs as part of governance. Societies may be judged decadent and in decline, but to put them under control of a rigid and obdurate religious regime a theocracy runs counter to humanitys very being and purpose.One need only see the return and resurgence of the Taliban to Afghanistan and its new repression after a couple of years of hope for those, especially women, who have been suppressed. Their form of fundamentalist Islam and the strictest interpretation of Sharia law are the best proof that when determined religious zealots gain any control in civil governments, freedoms and self-determination are lost. Repression, ignorance, dying and darkness follow.Kurtz puts it like this, All theocracies, trumpeted or clandestine, have proven to be disastrous. When the rights of our diverse citizenry are governed by the influence of a single faith, all those outside the narrow worldview that is the majority suffer, both religious and secular.Secularists and humanists are often denigrated by the religious right in this country because their religion has been characterized as mythology. That aside, all who seek preservation of healthy religious life in America should heed the secularists warnings and join in the battle against efforts to merge religious tenets with civil law so that a de facto theocracy takes root and grows.Listen especially to Christian and Islamic fundamentalists and their urgent appeals for crackdown on worldliness. Alas, these social revolutionaries havent found a way change human nature and thus control the arrogance, corruption and ruthlessness that come with power, be it political or sectarian. A pluralistic society of checks and balances, debate and discussion, is the best hope against one theology that fits all and the human catastrophe that would follow.

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