Think about the real divisive issues today, both at home and in the wider world.  Radical Islamic faith tearing apart the Middle East. The faith that drives suicide bombers to the far corners of the planet, and at home, divisions about abortion, marriage, and end of life issues.

At a time when the focus both home and abroad should be on the global economy, health, energy, science, hunger, ending territorial disputes and ending regional conflicts, time and again, the conflict turns back to religion.

Islamists, the Religious Right, all seem allied to restrict rather than enhance individual rights.  And we know from history that such efforts always are the foundation of greater conflict and sometimes revolution.

So how has a global society do we balance religious freedom with freedom from religion.  That answer today seems impossible.

All of that bring us back to atheism and why it’s so hard for atheists to get their message heard.

David Silverman, the President of the American Atheists has been at the forefront of the effort to convey that message and he does it once again in his new book Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World.

My conversation with David Silverman: