Evil Deity and other readings

The Copenhagenize blog for the other day was titled, Evil Deity. You probably already know why Mikael would post a quote with such a title, but it's worth a read. Some of the comments are illuminating, too.

After about a month of studying cases, I put to my first term torts students a couple of hypothetical questions. The first concerns an ‘evil deity.’ ‘Suppose,’ I ask my students, ‘such a deity were to appear to you, as president of this country or as controller of our legal system, and offer a gift, a boon, which would make life more pleasant, more enjoyable than it is today. The gift can be anything you want — be as idealistic, or as obscene, or as greedy as you wish — except that it cannot save lives.’ Later I will drop even that requirement. ‘The evil deity suggests that he can deliver this gift in exchange for one thing … the lives of one thousand young men and women picked by him at random who will each year die horrible deaths.’

When I ask, ‘Would you accept?’ my students almost uniformly answer, ‘No.’ Indeed, they are shocked that one could even ask the question. I then ask, quietly, what the difference is between this gift and the automobile, which takes some fifty-five thousand lives each year.

– Guido Calabresi, Ideals, Beliefs, Attitudes, and the Law, 1985

 I could go on and on about evil deities that people worship--or evil done in the name of someone's deity of choice. I make no secret that I'm an atheist, and have been for many years.

I recently enjoyed reading The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture, by Darrel M. Ray, Ed.D.  If you are even a little bit skeptical of what the church of the day is teaching you, this book is worth a read. If you have left organized religion behind, or are contemplating doing so, this book is a good read, as it gives some thoughts on how to deal with religious folks who cannot fathom your choice, why they cannot, and more.

Having enjoyed that book, my curiosity was piqued when Jenn brought home Why People Believe Weird Things by Micheal Shermer. I read the foreword by Stephen Jay Gould last night, and the introduction to the paperback edition by the author, and have begun reading the first chapter. It looks to be another promising read, discussing skepticism as a method rather than as a position.

From the time I first saw the book, though, the author's name jumped out at me. Having had some involvement with Race Across America, I had encountered descriptions of a condition experienced by RAAM racers called "Shermer's Neck," in which the neck muscles are so fatigued that the rider literally cannot hold his or her head up to see the road ahead. The condition is named after a guy who raced in the first years of RAAM, one Micheal Shermer, who is indeed the author of this book.

Small world, eh?