Screed away!

Lileks is impressive as always:

If Chavez’ opportunistic eco-twaddle smacks of the sort of religious eschatology you get from Pat Robertson, it should. The pious leftism of the international nomenklatura is a religion. The United States may not be their Great Satan, but it’s the devil they know. The bureaucrats and the EU anointed are the priesthood - and the Nobel peace prize is the means of bestowing sainthood.

It seems pretty obvious to me that most people need some sort of religion in their world, a simple way to summarize the 'big picture' and keep everything in perspective. That being the case, all else being equal I prefer those religions that have been around for a while and, while not free of fault, have actually managed to improve and help (or at least not hurt too badly) their societies.