The trip thus far

Route in Progress

While waiting for the fog to clear, I hear on the news that a young Utah boy got stuck crawling down a chimney because he was thirsty and looking for something to drink. What? I couldn't help thinking I was looking at a future Darwin award winner.

I also wondered if he was a Mormon...Yes, there could be a connection...Irrational thought processes can lead to irrational beliefs and behaviors. This boy was only eight, so maybe cartoons were an influence.

This however, is related to a bigger issue, wherein lies the connection. The front running Republicans who are vying for the Republican Presidential nomination are all touting their religious credentials: Mitt Romney a Mormon, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are evangelical Christians.

Researchers have established by randomly sampling the genetics of thousands of Native Americans, who according to the Book of Mormon supposedly descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel , that none were genetically related to Jews.

The Books of Mormon, the Bible, and the Koran are supposedly inspired by a truthful god and everything in it is ipso facto true, so if anything in it is false, it falsifies the whole thing by modus tollens. If A then B, but if not B, then not A.

 So, it is important to me not only to know what a political leader believes, but to know how they arrived at those beliefs. Why? Because this reveals something about their critical thinking skills and how they evaluate evidence. We hold our leader's behavior to ethical standards, but we should also hold their thinking to normative epistemic standards. In short, they should be held to an ethics of belief.Yes, it is true that humans are often irrational, but we expect more from our leaders. After all, democracy thrives on debate and criticism. It is time we stop giving religion a free ride. At a minimum an ethics of belief requires that beliefs be consistent and not conflict with evidence. Evidence here is not private evidence, but publically available evidence that is open to inspection by everyone. That is, there should be evidence for beliefs that does not conflict with the findings of science and rational thought. It seems reasonable that religious commitment, while it may go beyond reason at times, should not be contrary to reason and science. It's reasonableness should be demonstrated and this means it is open to refutation. The democracy of faith-based beliefs creates an irrationally level playing field where any belief is supposed to be respected no matter how ridiculous. You cannot respond that your belief is self-authenticing and based on some private experience. That can be used to justify any belief. How is it possible to criticize a belief based on faith? You have to hold them up to the external standards of evidence and reason. We do this all the time in extreme cases that conflict with law as witnessed by the recent Warren Jeff's polygamy trial. We need to draw a tighter line around all faith based beliefs and demand a higher standard.

By these standards, conservative Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Mormonism don't fare very well. Irrationalism in personal beliefs will inevitably lead to irrationalism when it comes to other decisions. It's time we demand more from our leaders.

The fog burnt off by nine, so I head out. Leaving Athens, Ohio, I pass through the Hocking Hills but once west of Columbus, the terrain turns flat. Its corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see. I call it quits when I reach Walcott, Iowa which is home to the 'Iowa 80, the Worlds Largest Truck Stop'.

An aerial view I pulled from the web.

From Indianapolis to Champaigne, Illinois, it was non-stop rain, but I had my rain gear and it cleared after Champaigne. The ride today was tiresome but I did 570 miles. Between the rain, high winds, trucks and a bumble bee that insisted on continually stinging my neck, I was glad to stop for the day. At first I thought it was a rough thread from my jacket poking my neck, but when I stopped for gas, I felt it crawling on my neck. Bumble bees, BTW, can sting multiple times according to Wiki, a fact I can verify.

We are supposed to be slowly coming out of a recession, but you can't tell that from the number of trucks on the road. About two-thirds of the vehicles are trucks.  I don't like driving behind semi's because the turbulence is annoying. I wonder what it will be like once the economy is booming again.

I stop for gas opportunistically because I try to use  only top tier gas and avoid el cheapo gas stations. Tomorrow I hope to make it to Rapid City, SD, a mere 766 miles from Walcott.