Checking in With Lewis Black

Lewis Black has a brief sermon for evangelical Christians who think they might be offended by Me of Little Faith, his comic rumination on religion. ''Don't read it!'' advises the comedian. ''I don't read your stuff.'' There is plenty that will irk people of various religious denominations as Black, 59, throws humorous barbs at televangelism, the Mormon church, and the Jewish faith in which he was raised but which he no longer practices. At one point, he daringly suggests that Jesus, if he comes back to earth, should enter rehab for PR reasons: ''He could say that returning was a real shock to the system and so he started self-medicating.'' Even so, the Daily Show regular sidesteps a handful of sacred cows of the sacred world, including Scientology (''I refuse to consider seriously anything that Tom Cruise believes in,'' he writes) and Islam, partly out of fear he'd have ''to go undercover. Even if it might increase the sale of books.''

Despite his ambivalence toward religion, Black admits he believes in some sort of cosmic force, and puts stock in both astrology and psychics. ''There's definitely something at work,'' he says. ''But I think encompassing the concept of what it is that keeps this all together would be like putting a finger in the socket. You'd be dead. I'm not that interested.'' Does Black ever worry God may not look kindly on his book? ''I think he'd say: 'Game effort,''' he says. ''I don't think he'd smite me for this.''