A War We Never Wanted

We American humanists now find ourselves in a war we never wanted. We actually believe strongly in freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, but conservative Christians refuse to acknowledge the fact that they live in a pluralist society. Due to their increasingly shrill public screeching of impossible-to-take-seriously ideas about the origin of the cosmos,  of human beings and other things, scientific and philosophical rationalism are locked in a zero sum contest with their supernatural belief system. 

Again, we'd be happy to live and let live (you go sing "Our God Is an Awesome God" at your megachurch, and I'll stay home studying Epicurus), but no, no deal. Not only can they not be happy until I give a big thumbs-up to their nonsense; they refuse to allow civil society to function unmolested. They want to limit the civil rights of their fellow citizens based on a highly selective reading of a Bronze Age religious text; that's where we draw the line. They want to take control of civil government and turn the republic into a de facto Christian theocracy. We have no choice but to engage.