An Ohio judge ruled that a medical examiner must delete from her autopsy reports any reference to tasers as contributing to the deaths of three persons. This judge provides us the opportunity to resolve a lot of controversial issues. With the pounding of his gavel, he might go on to rule on the question of whether life arose through evolution or intelligent design; whether global warming is caused by human activity or physical forces in the solar system; and whether Newton’s Third Law of Motion provides an analog to explain the many unforeseen consequences of state action. A man in a priestly black robe, sitting behind a judicial altar, and authoritatively dispensing “truth”: has all the makings of a secular religion, does it not?

The Best of Butler Shaffer