The response to my last posting about attending some black Baptist churches last Sunday, while visiting my friend Michael Coles in Atlanta, brought on an avalanche of responses, mostly positive but there were a few negative ones that, I think, might have misunderstood what I was trying to say.

First of all, I consider the internet to be a little more formal than a casual conversation, but a lot less formal than a publication. I've always thought of it as another medium to converse about subjects of mutual interests, and to get feedback on ideas. These postings are not formalized theories requiring strong reprimand, but conversations involving critical feedback, which I welcome.

Also, I do not "speak" for the Skeptics Society, per se, since the society is all of us together. While I think I know how most of you feel about things like psychic power, ESP, alien abductions, and the usual stuff we debunk, I am quite sure no one can speak for the group on matters of religion or politics. I know enough members well enough to know that the range of political positions ranges from extreme left to extreme right, and plenty who are not even on the left--right spectrum. And we have a broad range of religious beliefs in the group from militant atheists to hard core believers (although there is, obviously, a strongly skewed curve toward nonbelief).

This brings up the notion of having a Skeptics Society chat group in which everyone can talk to everyone else, but I have avoided that simply because I assume that most of you, like me, already get enough e-mail postings (with far too much noise to weed through for the occasional signal), and there are already skeptic discussion groups, that we probably don't need another just yet.

As to my specific post, it had nothing to do with what I think is the role of religion in the future, nor did it have ANYTHING AT ALL to do with politics. I merely mentioned the fact that one of my best friends (he was the best man at my wedding) is running for the U.S. Senate. Coles is an old bike racing buddy of mine. It wouldn't matter one wit to me whether he is running on the Democratic or Republican ticket, I would have been here to celebrate with him at his party either way. I am not "endorsing" Michael Coles, or Democrats, and even if I were no one would give a hoot about my endorsement since I am about as apolitical a person as they come (actively speaking that is). But since some of you assumed from my comments that I must be a Democrat (and therefore a liberal), I'm neither. I'm a registered Libertarian and just voted libertarian right down the line. But, frankly, I have focused my energies on subjects other than political and economic theory, so I really don't know that much compared to, say, religion, creationism, psychology, etc.

I have, for a long time, wanted to do a couple of theme issues of Skeptic, one on political theory and another on economic theory, with experts on various positions giving their best arguments. I may try to find some authors in the next year to do just that.

As for religion, I was in no way saying that in order for blacks to find freedom in America they should join churches. I was merely pointing out the fact that religion has played a significant role in the history of the black movement in America, and that it has served an important role in the evolution of all cultures. This is a historical observation, not a prognostication.

Someone pointed out that my language in describing Rushton and Murray's work was rather less than fair and objective. True enough, and I have not and would not write something like that in a formal published article. But, again, I do see these internet chats as something considerably less formal than publishing. Someone even took me to task a few weeks ago for referring to Heinrich Himmler's underlings as "thugs." Ya, okay, whatever. I shall concede this point.