From Antievolution.com

A man named Mr Christopher posted this at Antievolution

Although I was never a fundamentalist I was once a believer as well and Robert Ingersoll's writings did more to expedite my atheism than any other person or ideology. Ingersoll was my first glimpse into knowing there were in fact others who thought (and doubted) like myself.
Evolution had absolutely NOTHING to do with my decision to drop kick my faith. The creationists should be trying to ban Ingersoll and leave evolution alone :-)
For those unfamiliar -

Robert Ingersoll complete works
And...
Robert Ingersoll Wiki Pages
And I'll leave you with this Ingersoll quote:
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered. "

I was fascinated with the reading and it got me to thinking, How many authors have really influenced my thoughts on religion. Granted, I never was a believer, coming from liberal academic parents who, like all good liberals, politely declined religious services, but I was interested since I was born with the God Gene and since we lived waaaaay out in the forested mountains in the North Cascades part of Washington State where god is all around.

William Blake gave me my first images to manipulate the concept of religion with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Wierd for a kid to read this but my dad was a history professor so that's the kind of stuff we had lying around. Next came Mark Twain's "Letters From the Earth". My all time favorite is the rant from philip wylie called "The Magic Animal".

I love Ken Wilbur's idea that spirit is what we are evolving toward and the 9 insights from the Celestine prophecy were especially illuminating for me when I read them.

Any way, after providing all these links (I have read both bibles, the book of mormon, the bhagavad gita and etc but they are alittle too political for me :), I wonder, what authors have affected your religious thought?

Bush is not HELPING.

If you follow this link, you will see an unlikely source of criticism for Bush's State of the Union adress,

Today, I feel compelled to bring you a few words of encouragement as you may need them if you choose to watch tonight's State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush.

Throughout yesterday and today I have heard snippets from the Bush cheerleaders in the managed media and in so-called "Christian and conservative" circles which seek to prepare you for the supposed "attack dogs" of the Left who will demonize our beloved conservative and Christian President. Thus is the stage set for the dismissal of all criticism of the speech as emanating from biased, left winged, hateful, Bush bashing liberal Democrats.

Such posturing, I think you see, is meant to convince you that the (two?) major parties are the only choices you have. This is what we have termed "Boogie Man Politics"! You are supposed to ignore the evidence which is so plainly before you that this President and the men who surround him have no intention of following the Constitution, defending America's sovereignty, securing America's borders, ending the national disgrace of abortion, limiting the size of government, or anything else that you are wishfully thinking they stand for.

Finally, Someone is Doing Something About It!

http://www.ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State's sovereign authority retained under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The foundations of the United States of America were laid upon these principles, that the rights of man are God-given and inviolate, that the sole purpose of government is to secure these rights, and that the only just powers of government are those specifically delegated by the people. The federal government is restrained by Constitutional Law, the Sovereign States, and the Citizens of those States, each one made in the image of God, with individual rights to life, liberty, and property.

The federal government was created to protect us from the very tyranny it now practices against us...

This is not a drill. True Christians are encouraged to follow.