Disgusting. Demoralizing. Pathetic. What is it going to take to make the Democratic leadership (and I use that term with tongue in cheek) realize that most Americans are crying for leadership and integrity in the face of Republican corruption and power-mongering and presidential incompetence? Don't they understand that if they stood up, took a stand, drew a line on the Senate floor and said to the GOP, "This is where it ends," they would gain the instant admiration and loyalty of millions of their constituents? I think it's time to replace the Democratic donkey with a more appropriate animal. Like the chicken. Or the Cowardly Lion.

Wilson has a brilliant mind and he speaks with remarkable clarity about complex issues, but he leaves unsaid what I believe to be the great motivating force behind why humans continually search for transcendence and God: existential terror.

We fear our own mortality and the idea that after death there is nothing and the universe simply barrels on without us. We fear (even more than death, perhaps, which at least has a certainty to it) the idea that the events of life unfold with no plan, that all is chaos, that there is no hidden meaning behind South Asian tsunami and all the rest. As long as people fear these twin demons, they will always cling to religion like a small child clinging to a parent's robe in the dark.

How fortunate we are to have minds like Wilson's to light some small measure of the darkness.

Gore is the candidate who would strike terror into the heart of the GOP: fearless, committed to the environment and to ending the war, experienced in government and known around the country, and without a recent track record by which to hang him.

Al, for the good of a weary nation, PLEASE run.

I've held for years that secular people are more inherently moral that the religious. If you're a born-again Christian, part of the reason you do good works is because you're afraid of going to Hell. You're being bribed with Heaven to be a nice person. If you're an atheist, you have no such incentive. You do good works because you feel it's the right thing to do. Good for its own sake is morally superior to good for self-interest.

So it surprises me not at all that Christians are more likely to feel that torturing another human being is acceptable. I wonder how they feel about torturing other Christians?

My birthday isn't in November, but it is in January. For my early birthday present, I would like all the Republicans up for re-election in Congress to hitch their wagons to the patron saint of incompetence, bungling and hubris, George Dubya. The electoral bloodletting would result as even lifelong Republicans reject their corrupt, festering party would be a thing o' beauty.

Then for my on time birthday present, I would enjoy the sight of a passle of new Democrats being sworn in as they retake control of both houses.

Not that the Dems are all that much better, but it's a step in the right direction.

As a writer, editor and atheist who is currently editing the manuscript of one of the most clear-headed books ever written about what Christianity really is and should be, I thank you all. Seeing the unanimous derision and ideological spanking that the lunatic fringe of the Jesus Brigade is getting on these pages reminds me that there are many intelligent folks who do not buy into the delusional hate speech of these foul creatures in the slightest. It's a hopeful sign.

And Loula, thank you for a letter that made me laugh so hard I snorted Diet Dr. Pepper out my nose. I'm a sucker for a Holy Grail-based headline, I guess.

PS: Look for the book "God is Not a Christian" in the fall. It's already got Pat Robertson pissed and it's not even out yet. That's a very good sign.