Russell quote for our times

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

With the confluence of Intelligent Design casuistry and gay marraige bigotry, there is no more important notion to remember right now than what Bertrand Russell said in his Outline of Intellectual Rubbish. He continues:

The power of governments over men's beliefs has been very great ever since the rise of large States. The great majority of Romans became Christian after the Roman emperors had been converted. In the parts of the Roman Empire that were conquered by the Arabs, most people abandoned Christianity for Islam. The division of Western Europe into Protestant and Catholic regions was determined by the attitude of governments in the sixteenth century.

Regardless of one's revelatory pretenses, their religion is at base the result of socially conditioned superstition. Ignorance of this fact, and the violent intransigence which that ignorance tends to foster is the greatest danger to the modern world - the greatest threat to the survival of a liberal society and a prosperous future.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. -- Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 5