I’m beginning to agree with Democratic strategists who argue that the party should simply cede the Deep South to the Republicans and concentrate on building a winning coalition that spans the other three-fourths of nation. It seems that I come across a few news items every week that make me wonder if the Union really did gain anything by winning the Civil War. Case in point: the Georgia legislator who distributed a memo to his colleagues claiming that the science behind evolution and the Big Bang theory is actually part of a millenia-old plot authored by Jewish Pharisees.

How perfect. Here you have anti-Semitism, scientific illiteracy, and plain ol’ buffoonery wrapped up in a pretty box with a Confederate-flag bow perched on top. Is it possible for a Southerner to behave in a more cartoonish manner? Now, I realize one shouldn’t make generalizations. Without a doubt, there are many progressive-minded, rational people residing in the South. But they seem to be outnumbered by a populace that jubilantly glorifies ignorance and fear. Perhaps if we let the region languish as a political backwater for a decade or two, its citizens might eventually come to their senses and decide that they really do want to be participants in a twenty-first century society.

According to the rumors, Battlestar Galactica is going to be renewed for a fourth season. And at only thirteen episodes, it should be a leaner, meaner season. The show is still one of the best justifications for owning a television, but the engine of the storyline does sometimes seem like it’s sputtering in neutral. Fewer episodes should mean a tighter focus on plot and a more sustained sense of momentum towards a climax and denouement, as well as less reliance on day-in-the-life types of episodes (which, by pure coincidence, happens to be the title of the next episode). If–as the promos keep promising–Earth is going to be introduced at the end of the current season, the show’s writers are going to need to pull out a few tricks to maintain viewer interest through a fourth and possible fifth seasons. I’m anxious to see how they pull it off.

I was taking a look at my site statistics and I saw that someone had arrived at the blog via the search phrase “Mark Siegel death”. I’ve heard rumors that there’s a contract out on my head (ever since I challenged that coward Stephen Hawking to a fight to the death in orbital space, he’s really had it in for me). Perhaps someone out there is looking for details on the bounty. It’s possible I could be misreading the intent of the search phrase. Maybe this person is seeking out kindred souls who share a deep and abiding loathing of me and my writings.

Either way, I’d better sign up my nurses for refresher kung fu classes.

Sometimes, when I disclose to people that I’m an atheist, I feel like I might as well be telling people that I was abducted by aliens or that I’m the long-lost descendant of the Russian czar. Those statements would probably garner the same amount of mistrustful incredulity. “You’re an atheist? Really? So you, like, don’t believe in anything?”

Sam Harris, the author of The End of Faith, probably can relate. His book sets forth a carefully reasoned yet stirring critique of belief in God. Faith is a volatile and frequently lethal mix of people’s most irrational hopes and deepest fears–particularly the fear of death. The unprovable assertions of religious dogma provide the foundations of an irrational and exclusionary certitude of belief that can motivate people to commit unspeakable acts like the Inquisition or suicide bombings. Harris has especially harsh words for religious “moderates”, whom he accuses of cherry-picking the tenets of faith they choose to follow while ignoring the the harsher sectarian pronouncements of their chosen tradition. To Harris, the willingness of moderates to devise some sort of compromise between ancient tradition and their rational natures (while simultaneously tolerating the more fundamentalist beliefs of others) is to surrender humanity to a bleak future of ignorance and strife.

As you might guess, I find myself in almost complete agreement with Harris. I do find his efforts to propose a science of consciousness as a way of rationally experiencing the mystical aspects of the universe a little strained. Consciousness seems like such a subjective experience as to elude objective study and explanation. But that’s preferable to sitting by and watching the world consume itself in paroxysms of religious-inspired violence. Like Harris, I firmly believe that people can lead good and ethical lives without reliance on fairy tales that were scribbled down by profoundly ignorant men thousands of years ago. Towards the end of the book, Harris writes:

Clearly, it must be possible to live ethically–with a genuine concern for the happiness of other sentient beings–without presuming to know things about which we are patently ignorant. Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person you will pass in the street today, is going to die. Living long enough, each will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?

That passage resonates with me. We need not look to the supernatural to marvel at our existence and to feel compelled to do right by one another. It gives me hope to see that the number of nonreligious Americans is slowly rising, even though the media still seems to be inclined to treat nonbelievers with contempt.

Next up is most likely Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, which has been sitting on my shelf for too long.

I’ve had not one, but two man-dates tonight. The fellas, they just can’t get enough of me. But all this male bonding has tuckered me out. Good night.