1. I'm not sure it's necessary to have read the religious texts in their entirety (or even at all) to reject the basic premise of an invisible creator. Have you, for example, read the Origin of the Species and all Carl Sagan's books, not to mention whatever's been published on gravity or, let's say, germ theory or whatever got us to where we are on immunology....In other words, there are lots of things we know and understand based on something other than reading every word printed about it. Generally, I agree it's good practice to consult primary works related to one's opinions, but really, who has the time for all of it?

2. You say atheism requires "faith in your own mind." If what you're saying is that atheism ultimately calls on independent thinking or intuitive thinking, who could disagree with you? Certainly that is where religious belief comes from as well, the texts notwithstanding. The newer gnostic gospel stuff (and I know it's really old but had been hidden or something?) says specifically that faith comes from within. I guess I'm saying that everything, really, comes from within at the end of the day, no? Barring those children who have been conditioned or brainwashed to think a certain way, but truly, many of us, given access to the modern world, have been able to jettison much of that.

3. The atheists you have met are dark, friendless, arrogant, dress in black....I'm willing to bet you'd be shocked at the number of atheists sitting in your church pews, shopping in your grocery stores, teaching your children, etc. I think you have no idea how many "normal" people are atheists who admit it to almost nobody.

4. Your last paragraph advising atheists to get out of their boxes is good advice for everyone. My only observation is that most atheists I know (and that's very few who personally admit it, but I've met many online) have the most thoughtful, probing intellect and have actually spent much of their lives trying to believe. They can't help their unbelief and they have generally read more than believers. As a matter of fact, I'd venture to guess that atheists have read more religious texts than the believers themselves who skip over the stuff like "Stone the disabled who are within 3 feet of the church" or whatever that particular passage of the bible says.

I wish Obama had said, when asked originally about Ferraro's comments, "Well, I'm not sure there isn't some truth to that," looking thoughtful and transcendent. "I mean, it's hard to separate that part from who I am, you know? It's certainly true that if my skin weren't black, then I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't have had the same multicultural experience, I wouldn't have the same personality, I wouldn't perhaps have the passion I have for a different way of doing politics."

BAM.

That's the way he used to handle this shit. Kind of above the fray. I think he's gotten rattled. I don't blame him, I'm just saying I wish he'd stay cool for just a bit longer.

Oh, and he could have thrown a little tit at her tat: "Senator Clinton, of course, must know what I'm talking about. She brings to table her own demographic. As a woman, as a former First Lady, she brings all that to her candidacy; take any one of those away, and she wouldn't be the candidate she is, either."

BAM. Completely disarmed. Now it's all gone--Ferraro's ranting and her defiant, defensive diarrhea of the mouth--because what the hell can she say? Her 48 hours of non-stop press, which served to remind everyone over and over that Obama's The Black Candidate, just wouldn't have existed, or at least not in the form it did.

What do you all think? A bit of campaign advising in my future?