Politics and God. Now the Government have made a fist of the bills on hunting and terrorism, the next one that’s bound to the treatment is the law against the incitement of religious hatred. I’m not so sure that religions needs special laws to protect them especially as we all ready have plenty of laws to protect individual beliefs, the Human Rights Act for example. Besides as they’ve oppressed millions of people for centuries isn’t it their turn? Seriously though, we see the situation in America where you can’t be a politician without professing a belief in god (regularly) and atheists need not apply; is it only a matter of time before it happens here? As Salman Rushdie wrote in The Guardian today, “If America and Britain allow religious faith to control and dominate public discourse, then the western alliance will be placed under ever-increasing strain, and those other religionists, the ones against whom we're supposed to be fighting, will have great cause to celebrate.” I for one am glad I live in a secular society and like Rushdie I reckon American lawyer Clarence Darrow put the secularist argument best of all. "I don't believe in God," he said, "because I don't believe in Mother Goose."