Imagine you’re waiting in line at a bank and suddenly you get in an argument with someone waiting in the queue with you. Maybe he cut in line, or maybe you’re just a dick; doesn’t really matter. Things escalate, and suddenly you sock him right in the face. Now, should you be exempt from punishment because you had just come from a religious service not 10 minutes before?

Cherie Booth sure thinks so. The judge and wife of former douchebag Prime Minister Tony Blair recently spared a man from going to jail because he was religious, and she felt this indicated something about his character. The National Secular Society is not amused, and they claim her attitude was discriminatory (would she have been so lenient with an atheist?).

I’m sick and tired of the mistaken assumption religious people are somehow more moral than their non-religious counterparts, especially when every study seems to indicate that if there is a trend, it’s usually that religion actually makes you LESS moral. It’s probably because when every decision is made for you, you don’t take the time to actually weigh the consequences of your own actions, like say, whether or not it’s OK to punch a man in the face for no fucking reason. Still, I won’t assume the accused was more violent simply because he was a religious man, but I certainly wouldn’t let anyone off the hook simply because they had just come back from mosque.