Despite my regular trashing of religion in general (and fundamentalism in particular) on these pages, I've long held that things are getting better in this regard, at large. And to contrast that with the advance of collectivism, there is at least some cause for celebration of the fact that strong religious belief is on the wane for most people. While some might argue that the advance of statism is related to such a decline in fervent or dogmatic religious belief, I would counter that you don't ultimately do good by promoting (convenient) falsehoods. And besides, giving up God in favor of "The Great Society" should probably be seen as a natural progression. It is the exchange of one false authority for another, but there's a bright side. At least the State is real, and as such, cannot issue divine revelation to high priests, while at the same time, is not generally impervious to rational argument (though it might often seem so). Some weeks back, I got an email from several sources touting the number of Jewish Nobel Prize laureates vs. those awarded to Muslims. It should be noted that of the nine "Muslims" (as compared to 178 Jews), one of...