This is a reaction to Michael Yon's latest dispatch from Iraq, here: http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm

I am no longer quite so certain about cause and effect, when it comes to Muslim (or Christian) fundamentalism and terrorism. I'm an atheist, and a fan of Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. But I'm beginning to think that faith itself is not a cause of such lunacy as Yon describes, but rather an enabler. A faith that sorts the world into black-and-white categories, and sanctions the most horrible acts in defense of the white, must powerfully attract psychotic personalities. Which doesn't mean religion doesn't contribute to much of the world's nastiness. It's probably a wash, amplifying both positive and negative tendencies in different individuals.

Still, a worldview that denies the evidence of one's own senses and valorizes fairy tales probably contributes more craziness than reason to the world, on the whole.