"What does it mean to believe that there is a divinely supervising father who ... knows, and watches, and cares? ... I think it has two very disagreeable implications.
One is that we are subjected all the time to a permanent, unending, round-the-clock surveillance that begins at least when we're born ... and doesn't even quit when we die. There's no privacy. There's no freedom. There's nothing you do that isn't watched over.
And ... you can be convicted of thoughtcrime. 'You are already guilty because we know you at least were going to think about it.' This is an absolute definition of unfreedom. It's what Orwell means when he says that all totalitarianism is essentially theocratic."
-- Christopher Hitchens