Jefferson was clearly one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. His broad minded moderness is something worth intellectually emulating even today. Having said that I wonder why the Christian viewpoint is being put up against it. Christianity exalts a broadmindedness of spirit quite like Jefferson. Not being a Christian it evokes admiration even amongst Hindus like myself. The world, incidentally, is not all Christian. A majority of the world's people follow faiths other than Christianity, some of which like Hinduism and Buddhism even offer space for outright atheistic interpretations and for agnosticism of the sort that I accept. There is a much bigger world out there about which we know nothing. Let religious certitudes be replaced by healthy skepticism. Nothing wrong in being Socratic.

Sharad Bailur, Mumbai, India, June 22, 2005