Thomas Jefferson was the Richard Dawkins of His Time

In 1785 Jefferson published his views on government and religion. He saw government entering peoples' lives only when on person inflicted physical or mental harm on another or on another's property. It was in a section entitled "Religion" that Jefferson made a case for keeping religion and government separate. Even though some in religion today scoff at keeping them separate Jefferson's argument is so powerful it pushes back, at least to some degree, religious zealotry. 

His famous "Wall of Separation" was and remains a great metaphor for keeping religion out of government. As we know he had no use for the miracles in the Bible nor for using religious views to limit the liberties of individuals. I wish we know what he would say today about limiting the freedom of women who want merely the medical services that should always be available to them.

While it's hard to judge now 250 years later how much resistance there was to Jefferson's skepticism about religion, there had to have been a lot. Preachers and churches were everywhere. If people heard and quoted their President it would have sounded much like Richard Dawkins sounds to many religious people today. 

Dawkins' book attacks all aspects of Christianity and its history. Jefferson, it seems to me, stayed close to the practical matters people understood. It was that gods are imaginary, there were no miracles and no one should have to deprived of a right because it offended someone who is religious. 

It seems like Kamala Harris has a characteristic of Jefferson. That is the willingness to throw rocks in the stream of constant demands of the religious right.