Barking Mad

It is now a sackable offence to hold religious beliefs that somebody else finds rediculous: specifically to believe, under the influence of a faith healer, that we pay in this life for our own sins in a past life.
Tony Blair's church believes, under the influence of a faith healer, that God assumed human form in order to pay forsomebody else's sin in a past life --- Adam's. It was nice of God to punish himself for Adam's sin, because otherwise God would have compelled himself to punish us for Adam's sin (obviously our just deserts fiven that we are Adam's remote descendents). Except that nowadays, or course, educated people like Tony Blair don't believe Adam existed in the first place.
The fact is, any religion sounds barking mad except to those brought up in it. Could there be a lesson here?
- Richard Dawkins, Letter to Independent, 1999.