I sat in front of my computer this morning and watched, somewhat obsessively, as Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains attempted to dazzle the audience of ABC’s Nightline with “absolute, scientific proof in the existence of god without relying on faith.” As you might guess, he and author Ray Comfort were generally unsuccessful in this endeavor (although Cameron is impressively well spoken). Not only did they frequently refer to biblical passages for substantiation, but Comfort actually began his argument with a variation of the thoroughly debunked Watchmaker Analogy.

So why do we care so much? Why do we reserve such ire and rancor for this subject? Because we’ve seen that people armed with religious justification for their behavior are dangerous (and more, and more), and we think it’s time to start looking for ways to make the world less, not more dangerous.