Religion scholar Stephen Prothero will be a regular contributor to CNN's Belief Blog. With his bestselling book "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–And Doesn't," Prothero became the country's leading explainer of how religion undergirds much of American life and history - in ways that most us don't realize. With his new book, "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," the Boston University professor has taken his franchise global. A few times each week, Prothero will offer posts on the hidden faith angles behind the news.

By Stephen Prothero, CNN Belief Blog contributor

In my first CNN Belief Blog post, “Do 6 Catholics + 3 Jews = 9 Protestants?” I argued that, no matter how you do the math, we need more religious diversity on the Supreme Court. Over 700 comments flooded in, flowing in all sorts of intriguing directions. Many said we need more atheists; some said nine nonbelievers was about right. Meanwhile, “Trinity” suggested an approach apropos of his or her name:

How about 3 religious (pick your religions), 3 non-religious (atheists) and 3 indifferent (agnostics)? Sounds fair to me.

The most consistent criticism, however, was one I have heard many times before: when it comes to presidents, legislators, and Supreme Court justices, religion shouldn’t matter because the work of public officials should never be influenced by personal religious commitments.

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