John Derbyshire on his lack of faith

John Derbyshire at National Review has a heartfelt piece on his crumbling faith. As far as agnostics or atheists go, I wish more were like him. I think that despite his obvious brain wattage, he's got some problematic views of how God fits into the equation, but on the whole, it's a sincere piece. Do check it out.

I was surprised to see this section in his Q&A, though. An excerpt:

Q. Are you anti-Catholic?

A. Yes, mildly. I say this with proper embarrassment. It’s really absurd, I know it is, to nurse remnants of those 17th-century prejudices up here in the 21st. And it’s doubly absurd in the U.S.A., where, despite occasional frictions, Christians of all varieties have fought side by side on behalf of liberty for 200 years and more. Still it’s there, and lots of readers have spotted it, so I had better try to explain myself.

A lot of it is just English mother’s milk. Our school history books, for example, were full of popish plots against the crown, Catholic traitors spying for Spain and France, and so on. Mary Tudor and James II did not get good press (though Bonnie Prince Charlie was allowed some romantic glamour, since he was such a pitiful loser), and we heard all about Pope Alexander VI. Those early impressions — scheming, hatchet-faced Jesuits lurking behind curtains, whispering treason in Latin, plotting to murder Good Queen Bess and hand us over bound and shackled to continental tyrants for the good of our souls — are hard to erase.

I understand, John, that nurture is very difficult to overcome. Nonetheless, your name is now on a list in the vast server network in the Vatican's dark basement.