OUT, OUT DAMNED BASLOW!

Roused (belatedly) to action by Natalie Angier's article in the New York Times Magazine of January 14th, Baslow has decided to out himself. He is an atheist.

This is not a cause, with him. He doesn't spend a lot of time advocating or promoting atheism. It is simply one of his beliefs about the nature of the universe.

He is, however, somewhat alarmed at the increasing pace at which explicit religious discourse is infusing political discourse. It is one thing (and a quite acceptable thing, as far as Baslow is concerned) for religious philosophy to inform one's political outlook. It is quite another thing to presume that all right-thinking citizens must be religious.

It is dangerous nonsense to maintain that only religious people can conduct their lives in an acceptably moral way. It is simply wrong to maintain that religious people are, in the aggregate, any more morally responsible than non-religious people.

It is offensive to suggest that one must be religious to be American.