[MD] Ayn Rand

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Craig]
In "For the New Intellectual", Rand blames evil on two types of 
people:  the "Witch Doctor" who uses faith rather than reason & 
"Attila" who uses force rather than reason.  For her Marx falls in 
the latter category.

[Arlo]
Marx's contention would be that slavery is never ended by "reason". 
Slavery in the south was not overcome by reason, it was overcome by 
free men standing, violently, to their captors and breaking the 
chains by which they have been bound.

In the interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzGFytGBDN8), Rand 
does not draw a distinction between "Witch Doctors" and other 
"religion". For here, all religion must be cast aside, she 
vociferously proclaims atheism.

I saw "Religiulous" a few days back (great movie), and was struck by 
how Maher more-or-less matches Rand (and Marx) on this topic. Have 
you seen the movie? Did you get this impression as well? (One 
difference would be that where Rand adamantly offers atheism, Maher 
professes only to offer "doubt", and as such is somewhat milder and 
less anti-theistic in tone). But Maher and Rand (and Marx) seem to 
agree that "the Age of Religion" must end. Do you think this is a 
fair assessment?