Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, OM, FRS (born 23 June 1942 in York[1]) is an English cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has been Astronomer Royal since 1995, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge since 2004, and President of the Royal Society since 2005.

Some still pine for the good old days when medical practitioners used theology and astrology as the basis for health care.

The struggle to marginalize superstition will take more time however there can be no let up in reminding the public to be wary.

I may be the first person in the history of the website Trip Advisor to post as part of my London hotel review, that bibles be removed from rooms. As a paying guest I do not wish to be proselyted. On the way to the rally on the 18th I took along the found Gideon and pitched it as a symbolic act. Following that up to the hotel management was easy. (FYI - hotels do not pay for bibles, Books of Mormon or Gitas, they are provided by NGO religious corporations and hence this is not destroying hotel property.)

Objecting to the influence of religion is necessary, do it often and in public.

A few years ago there was a fantastic exhibit at the Museum of Sex (NY, NY)

Kung poo panda 'The Sex Lives of Animals' exhibit digs deep.

It is too bad that the show didn't travel as it was very insightful.

@ hitchens_jnr

Germany (scroll down when you hit the link & look at Switzerland too, oh the meddling continues by the the Holy Roman Emperor)

Germany levies a church tax, on all persons declaring themselves to be Christians, of roughly 8–9% of the income tax, which is effectively (very much depending on the social and financial situation) typically between 0.2% and 1.5% of the total income. The proceeds are shared amongst Catholic, Lutheran, and other Protestant Churches. In 1933 Hitler had the entry "church tax" added to the official tax card, which meant that the tax could now be deducted by the employer like any of the other taxes.

Some believe that the church taxation system was established or started through the Concordat of 1933 signed between the Holy See and the Third Reich.

Hildegard von Bingen was the 10th child and hence tithed to the Church. I guess from that peried (12th century) intelligent women had a chance for a better life in a convent than to opt for marriage to a brutal chavainist. Today German citizens are required to tithe, I am astounded by that.

Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as a tithe to the church.