Skeptical cautions for the faithful

British skeptic David Flint cautions the faithful that some religious explanations are not benign. No one's faith need be shaken by contemplating the points he raises. For example:

I accept that such words may bring comfort to some people and seem to do no harm. There are other religious "meanings" that certainly do, however. It's little more than 150 years since Dr Robert Brown declared in the Lancet that women should suffer in childbirth; painless delivery was, he thought, an invention of the devil. It's only nine years since prominent American evangelicals blamed "the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" for 9/11 [The Rev. Jerry Falwell apologized]. And it's only four years since Australia's leading Muslim cleric blamed rape victims for rape – on the grounds that they wouldn't have been raped had they stayed home. These stories (Karen Armstrong's word) try to reconcile us to evil. They matter.