Bill Maxwell
Most Americans are driven to good by peace and reason, not God
Cornell University professor R. Laurence Moore writes that "American religion, as a category of thought, is protean. Statistics suggest its complexity. Compared to organized religion in Western European societies, the disestablished churches of the United States enjoy enviable institutional health."

Jon East
Voting for the vote-counter
Under century-old provisions, voters in most Florida counties still elect the supervisor of elections and other officers, such as the property appraiser and tax collector, whose jobs are purely administrative. To make matters worse, the elections are partisan.

Editorials
Covering the children
George W. Bush needs to address questions concerning his handling of health care coverage for poor children in Texas. He also should say how he would deal with the issue nationally.

Letters
'Taboos' benefit families and society
Re: Avoiding social taboos does not make us better people, by Robyn Blumner, Aug. 27.

Times recommends
Times recommends
In Tuesday's primary elections, most voters should have more opportunities to vote because of two constitutional changes:

Martin Dyckman
Negative campaigns can be constructive when true
TALLAHASSEE -- Thomas E. Dewey will forever be known as the man who wasn't elected president. Almost everyone thought he would be. Then Harry Truman whistlestopped around the country, bad-mouthing Dewey's Republican buddies in what he called the "do nothing" 80th Congress and earning the nickname "Give-em-hell-Harry."

Don Addis
Can't fine dead people, or can you?
I'm not one to complain, mind you, but I gotta question this one. In India, police filed criminal complaints against the pilots of an Alliance Air jet that crashed, killing 56 people -- including the pilots.

Books
A journey in search of a map thief
In The Island of Lost Maps reporter Miles Harvey goes in search of an elusive map thief with the improbable name of Gilbert Bland.

Mapmakers chart the world of the unknown
Few people alive in the early part of the 21st century can recall what it was like not to have the gift of astronaut eyes, that nearly god-like perspective of the world in which no geographic detail is beyond seeing.

The sea of possibilities
Did you ever wish there was a road map to life? Well, now there is, thanks to Dutch mapmakers Louise Van Swaaij and Jean Klare.

Celebrating the world's wonders
As a child I used to sneak under the dining room table and look at maps. I'd study the topographic features of distant countries and imagine what their lands looked like and who peopled them, dreaming of one day visiting those places and matching my imagination to reality.

Plumbing the past
Rhoda Strong Lowrie, half Lumbee Indian, half Scot, claimed two great loves in her life: Henry Berry Lowrie, the local hero who became her husband, and Scuffletown, the place where she lived.

A beautiful puzzle
I was 400 pages into Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, and nothing had happened yet -- and I was riveted. But confused.