Have faith?

John Mark Eberhart of McClatchy News Service interviews comedian Lewis Black, including about his book Me of Little Faith. The article appeared in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in connection with an upcoming local appearance by Mr. Black.

One of Black's topics is "Why do we need religion at all?"

His answer, or at least one of them: fear of death.

"Religion gives us a destination to head toward. It's the Orbitz of death, and if you are as good as you can be, then you get to end up in first class and you don't have to go through the security line. You won't even have to take your shoes off."

Is there a religion of works-righteousness-based immortality? I have encounted something that sounds like it at funerals. Turns out we might call it Lewtheranism.

In one piece, "Ron the Archangel," Black ponders why he felt such a sense of peace when his brother died - and why, in the months and years that followed, many pieces of his life began to fall into place.

"Career doors that had been closed to me began to swing open," Black writes. "I have no doubt that my brother was the one who was helping to unlock them."