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I just picked up Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason. I’ve shared my passion for this general topic before, but Sagan, Dawkins and Harris are all atheists, and this may cause their message to fall on a certain number of deaf ears.

But Al Gore believes in God. And he’s passionate about the importance of reason to the survival of our society. This isn’t the first time I’ve wanted to shout from the rooftops that people should listen to him, but this time he puts a crystal clear call to action right at the beginning (p. 10):

We Americans must resolve to repair the systematic decay of the public forum. We must create new ways to engage in a genuine and not manipulative conversation about our future. We must, for example, stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of psuedostudies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public’s ability to discern the truth. Americans in both parties should insist on the reestablishment of respect for the rule of reason.

Fight for reason. It’s the real way to be patriotic. Who’s with me?

UPDATE 5/28: Here’s the letter I mailed to Al Gore today.

UPDATE 2: Online versions are freely available of the Introduction and Chapter One.