Nice interview, and for me personally, a Karen Armstrong presents a very inspiring viewpoint of religion and mysticism. I'm currently reading "The Great Transformation" and it's as fascinating as it is well-written.

As a scientist, though, I have to take issue with this statement by the interviewer:

For the evolutionary biologists, the question is whether there's some natural progression to evolution.

That betrays a profound misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, which is based on the idea that random genetic changes can lead to improved fitness - that is, likelihood of procreation - and that these mutations are inherited by the next generation. There is nothing whatsoever about a "progression" - evolution can just as easily lead to "regression" - loss of features, such as limbs in whales or eyes in cave-dwelling organisims. Evolutionary biology strives to understand the mechanism, but it is universally accepted that the only direction of evolution is in what makes survival more probable.

According to various sources (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election) , the VAP turnout increased form 51.3% in 2000 to either 55.3% or 56.7% in 2004 (depending on the source). I'm not sure where the author got the really high number for the 2000 election, presumably helped along by the surge in youth voting.

I don't know how it will work this year, but it looks like youth excitement for Kerry (or more likely, against Bush) did translate into gains in the voter turnout, and the excitement for Obama appears to be far greater.