On the publishing, you just said right there that the filter lies at the publisher level - not the author level. The more controversial, less useful books sell better. That I would agree with, but that's not what you said earlier - you specifically addressed the authors' motivations. Nothing you've said addresses that.

Authors respond to incentives like everyone else in the history of the world. But I was never talking about authors motivations: I was talking about the values illustrated by the atheist movement as can be seen from what the book market produces.

Neither of us even moved towards suggesting a conspiracy. Where did that come from?

I can't understand what you disputable about my position so I was guessing at possible miscommunications.