Today, I took another trip to Barnes & Noble. While standing attentively in the philosophy section, with eyes fixed ahead of me like a hawk ready to swoop down along the path of the exact golden ratio to pounce its prey, it hit me that I had to pee. I had been studying this section of the store intently for a good 10 minutes, looking for an interesting read, anything I might have missed during my last visit. But pickin's was mighty slim. If I'm lucky, the store is clearing out for new arrivals.

The reason I initially walked over to the section was because the man working the Help Desk told me that Richard Dawkins' newest, The God Delusion, was in stock. Their database has it listed in the philosophy section for some mysterious, perhaps divinely inspired, reason. Fortunately, it was in stock. Unfortunately, it isn't being allowed onto the shelves until tomorrow morning. Fortunately, when it gets put on the shelves, it will be on sale right in the front of the store at a holy-crapping discount of 25% off. Unfortunately, it's still getting its feet wet in hardcover and I want paperback. Fortunately, though, I might buy it anyway, since I have seats to see Dawkins lecture about this book at the end of October.

At the very moment that I realized my bladder had started its final countdown to implosion, my eye caught this little white book squeezed between two bigger, darker books, like they were either protecting or trying to squeeze to death this tiny, poor helpless thing. Well, being the compassionate creature I am, I grabbed that book off the shelf without even glancing at the title. No, I'm lying; I did look, but the title basically forced my hand on the issue and I had to do something about it. Guess what it was. It was a copy of Sam Harris's newest book, Letter to a Christian Nation. What luck I have.

I read that super sacriligious sucker in less than a half-hour. It's short and sweet and goes perfect with around 372 mg of the street drug, caffeine, which is an amount that happens to be equivalent to that in a "grande" 16-ounce cup of coffee at Starbucks. Anyhow, after I finished Harris's book and had long since gulped down my coffee, I carefully sat it on the table where I was sitting, stood up, and walked away, leaving it prominently face up so that someone else who really needs its message might see and open it out of curiosity for once.

Sam wrote this book for—and to, using "you" throughout—Christians expressly. However, the book is a page-turner for anyone, Christian, atheist, or other. And it has one of the sweetest quotes on atheism that I believe I have ever read:

The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to "never doubt the existence of God" should be obliged to present evidence of his existence—and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. An atheist is a person who believes that the murder of a single little girl—even once in a million years—casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God.

"An atheist is a person who believes that the murder of a single little girl—even once in a million years—casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God." Can't you taste the sugary satisfaction of gourmet generalizations like this one? Sam, I could not have written it better had I had two more cups of lukewarm coffee. I wish this book had been around when I was in high school, or younger.

Listen, whether you are a devout Christian or a militant atheist, do yourself a huge favor and read this book. There is no conceivable way that you will regret it. Besides, all you have to lose is your ignorance.