As a freethinking human being, I have come not to favor or fear religion, but to face and fight it as an impediment to civilized advancement.

To the Editor: "You might think that Occam's razor would favor religion," Michael Kinsley writes.

The Religion Clauses prohibit the government from favoring religion, but they provide no warrant for discriminating against religion.

It has been held to prohibit not only the institution of an official church, but any government act favoring religion, a particular religion, or for that matter irreligion.

The First Amendment does not permit government to favor Judeo-Christian religion over other religions, or over no religion at all.

Is it conveyed through the Bible, which Mr. Schlesinger, though favoring religion, does not even mention?

To say that we favor Eastern religion, what in God's name are they talking about?

Others argued that tax deductions favoring religion had been granted for more than 200 years without any objections from the Supreme Court, and this one was no exception.

You might think that Occam's razor would favor religion; the biblical creation story certainly seems simpler than evolution.

The United States Supreme Court has consistently ruled in school prayer cases that the clause prohibits government from favoring religion over nonreligion.