Newt Gingrich's Alternate Reality

Via Evolutionblog comes this account of Newt Gingrich's speech to the graduates of Liberty University. In it, he talked about, as if from a parrallel universe from this one, the "growing culture of radical secularism", and how "This anti-religious bias must end":

"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive," Gingrich said, deriding what he called the "contorted logic" and "false principles" of advocates of secularism in American society.

That's right Newt. All over the world, in Iraq, Northern Ireland, Israel, and other areas, it's all those nasty secularists gumming up the works with violence against anyone who disagrees with them, whereas all the various religious sects are paragons of peace in those areas. /sarcasm

"Basic fairness demands that religious beliefs deserve a chance to be heard"

No doubt Newt. It's a shame how devoid of expressed religious views American society is. Haven't you seen how the networks just cut off anyone, politicians, commentators, or athletes who try to make religious statements or thank God for their accomplishments? Why just last week the evil atheist conspiracy raided all the hotels and replaced the Bibles with copies of the "Communist Manifesto", cut off all the crosses atop the churches, and replaced the Congressional prayer with a tribute to Darwin.

"It is wrong to single out those who believe in God for discrimination. Yet, today, it is impossible to miss the discrimination against religious believers."

Yeah, that's right Newt. Expressing your religious views is liable to get you fired and get protestors at your house. No politician or celebrity dare talk about his faith, or speak poorly of atheists. School boards have no religious members or agendas, courts are having people swear on the godless constitution, and books written about religion are completely absent from the bestseller book lists.

Seriously, what planet is Newt living on? Religion, particularly Christianity, still dominates American culture. Atheists rank last in polls of which group Americans would be willing to vote for as president. Lunatics like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson say the most bigoted and idiotic things, and are still touted by people like Newt as paragons of virtue. People like Newt are so blinded by their own views, and years of Christian dominance of our culture, that the slightest progress towards a more secular society seems to them like discrimination against them. Sorry, removing unwarrantd privledges is not discrimination, and the religious have had too many privledges for too long in this society. There are a lot more atheists than is commonly understood, and our numbers are growing. Get used to it Newt, it's only going to get better.