Persons of interest...

I know, I know, in police procedurals, (gee, I hope there are more "Foyles," BID,) that kinda sorta means suspects who we can't yet call suspects, but I just mean someone who has piqued my curiosity.
Just saw a short and silly piece on Atheism In America on CBS Sunday morning (I say "silly" because the reporter, NOT a partisan, asked in the Asking-This-Question-Means-I-Think-So-But-Haven't-The-Courage-Of-My-Convictions-To-Use-A-Declarative-Sentence-Or-The-Journalist's-Drive-To-Bother-To-Find-Out-For-Certain mode that Jon Stewart refers to as "a cavuto," if failure to practice means the putatively religious have no belief, just a habit. Well, hon', only if the universality of lying indicates that humanity doesn't really believe Truth is a value and an ideal, that lip service to honesty is... "just a habit.")

Anyway, a writer/academic named Protheroe (sp?) and Julia Sweeny's Irish-Catholic mom.

A correction: according to a transcript I just looked up, the on-air personality did NOT phrase it was a question: To some, that suggests religion is little more than a habit — a comfortable place to be.

("Some." Which "some" would that be? That is a bit like the Prime Ministers' coded, off-the-record verification of political rumors in that blistering BBC series, "Some might say so, I couldn't possibly.")

And as long as I'm amending, the name was "Stephen Prothero"

And in his book, Religious Literacy, he says, "Americans, though religious, actually know little about any faith, let alone their own. "
Which becomes a not-very-meaningful statement when we acknowledge that there's precious little Americans do know much about.