Overheard

When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more--that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough.

[Asked whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation] I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know.

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich
Interview with ESPN.com
(Cited in April 24 testimony to Congress by Marie Tillman on reopened probe of U.S. Army Cpl. Pat Tillman's death)

You'll always find this Muslim standing up for your right to be atheists all you want.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison
(a Muslim)
Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 9, 2007

Many people are uncomfortable with the notion that a certain group, no matter how small or big, has a direct line to God.

CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour
On "God's Warriors"
Windsor Star [Ont.], Aug. 20, 2007

I couldn't get the victims' stories [of sexual abuse by priests] or the bishops' lies--many of them right there on their own stationery--out of my head. I had been in journalism more than two decades and had dealt with murders, rapes, other violent crimes and tragedies. But this was different--the children were so innocent, their parents so faithful, the priests so sick and bishops so corrupt.

My soul, for lack of a better term, had lost faith long ago--probably around the time I stopped going to church. My brain, which had been in denial, had finally caught up. . .

Clearly, I saw now that belief in God, no matter how grounded, requires at some point a leap of faith. Either you have the gift of faith or you don't. It's not a choice. It can't be willed into existence.

Sitting in a park across the street from the courthouse, I called my wife on a cellphone. I told her I was putting in for a new beat at the paper.

William Lobdell
Former religion writer
"Religion beat became a test of faith"
Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2007

Yes, the parents of third-grade agnostics and Buddhists and Muslims can sign a form that allows their child not to say the pledge, or to skip "under God." But those kids will feel like weirdos, different from all their classmates. They might not feel like Texans anymore.

Columnist Lisa Gray
Re: addition of God into Texas State Pledge of Allegiance
Houston Chronicle, Aug. 5, 2007

Both [James] Dobson and [John] MacArthur are high-profile evangelical leaders with enough influence and ability to make a positive contribution to the plight of battered women which would result in lives being saved. [Instead,] their words are often used to send Christian women back into the danger zone with counsel that encourages them to try and change violent husbands or return to violent homes as soon as the "heat is off."

Evangelical Christian Jocelyn Andersen
Author, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence
Media Transparency, July 23, 2007

We are a Christian nation, not a Muslim nation.

Jennifer Miller
Cincinnati school board member
The Inquirer, Jan. 4, 2007

I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it. These sorts of silly views are killing our faith.

Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head
Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations
CNN.com, Feb. 2, 2007