[aardvark1]

You referred me to "post #12" the gist of which I responded to. When I got your response, there were 168 posts on the thread. You're right. I didn't read them all. If I misunderstood what you were referring to, my apologies.

[liberallarry]

And my apologies to you if I misunderstood the intent of your first post.

[liberallarry]

Perhaps, I should summarize.

In my reading, Crichton was complaining about rigid and intolerant people who claim special access to "the truth" - access which they feel is self-evident and not subject to criticism.

Crichton, as is the case with much of the secular world, characterizes this mind-set as religious - wrongly. There are many, many believers who are open-minded and tolerant and many athiests who are not. But he is not without justification. For centuries religious believers held power - and too often abused that power to suppress and persecute dissident voices.