A Few More Thoughts on the 10 Commandments

Over at Findlaw, Marci Hamilton has a column that does a pretty good job of explaining how the Supreme Court came up with a split decision in the two 10 Commandments cases that came down this week. I don't particularly care for Breyer's "nobody complained about it for a long time so it must be OK test," but I don't have any real problem with the way things came down in these cases. It's fun to watch the various sides spin the outcomes to their favor. The most honest assessment I've heard was from Jerry Falwell's attack lawyer, Jay Sekulow, who said that these cases will be determined on the discreet facts of each case.

Meanwhile, I pass along this interesting quote from Thomas Jefferson, for the fundies to consider next time they try and paint him as a Bible-thumping Christian:

I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.

Find that quote and many others here and here.