The Forkes Report - Religion and Society

For The Love Of God

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:45:00 -0700

What happened to the Green Bay Packers? How could they lose their first playoff game of 2012 and lose it in Lambeau Field? Now what? Like the end of every season, we wait until next season. But jeez, the first round, to the Giants?

Now I’m cheering for the San Francisco 49ers … (sigh)

Have you seen the commercial for Christian Mingle on TV? Okay, for the most part they are like all the other dating-slash-romance sites on the Internets, but this one has the most disturbing tag line of all: “Find God’s match for you!”
 That line is trademarked.

How would you know it’s “God’s match”? The ad goes on to say “God” is telling you (us) instead of waiting for God to find us a mate, “… it’s your time to act; it’s your move.”

Well, which is it? God’s match or our choice? It’s contradictory, in line with the conundrum of Christianity that’s been the mystery of all mysteries since the nuns first began their brainwashing … err … training … 50-plus years ago. God knows everything and knows before you are born your life from beginning to end — but you have free will!

So, if God knows that at the age of 18 I will reject everything I’ve been taught about God and supernatural deities, why wouldn’t he put something in my life to lead back to “The Way”? If not the proverbial burning bush, a vision at a key time, a vital moment when spirituality is playing a part in my life?

Like, on March 16, 1996 when I had the massive heart attack while waiting for a police officer to write a ticket for me in Mira Mesa. Once the ambulance arrived the paramedics loaded me in and began to do their thing to save my life. Those who have survived these types of myocardial infarctions know exactly how painful they are: the most horrific pain I’ve felt — ever.

Along with the pain came fear, the likes of which I had not experienced. Really, this was the life or death moment. That nice sports car left at the curb (a Mazda RX-7), all the money in my possession, none of that material stuff had any relevance, with the possible exception of my insurance card.

Years before I had joined a group that suggests finding a “higher power.” I never did, in a conventional sense, but had come to one important conclusion: I wasn’t an atheist. So I learned a couple prayers, mainly for meditative purposes and marched on.

Then the heart attack happened. As I lay on the gurney, scared to death (what a funny pun) listening to the paramedics doing their thing, I asked the Big Question: “Am I going to die?”

There were two paramedics in the ambulance and one never said a word to me until I asked that question. His answer: “Focus.”

All right. That succeeded in ramping up the fear. So I closed my eyes — and was promptly told not to fall asleep — and said what is affectionately known as my “morning routine:” two prayers and a little moment of introspection and gratitude. Instantaneously all the fear was replaced by total serenity. It’s not a feeling or moment easily described. There was absolute peace, a warm comfort and an assurance that whatever happened was going to be okay and that dying was as acceptable as living.

Here’s the interesting thing about that experience: there was nothing denominational about it. No vision of any deity, Christian or otherwise, no voice saying, “Tim, this is God talking and the nuns were right.”

Those three or four minutes in the ambulance confirmed what I believed: there was this greater spirit, higher power in this universe that could bring, at the very least, comfort to my life.

The point of that story being I’m not attacking people with spiritual beliefs or even the religious views I do not share. Most of us have some kind of spiritual belief, even if it is just in the connectedness we feel between each other.

So here we are in 2012, watching these ads for Christian Mingle on TV. They want us to join and find God’s match for us, but their advertising also says God is telling us it’s up to us to find that right person.

Curious, I decided to check them out and try a “free” membership. To start you have to answer a few questions, give up some contact and personal info and write a little something about yourself. Then you get some pop-up ads, one of which tells you to hurry! Pay the monthly price and upgrade your account! I didn’t.
 Here’s a tip: if you’re really interested and want to join, cancel your membership and they will offer you two months for the price of one: $29.95.

Obviously the owners of the site are doing it for profit. There is a membership fee and there are ads on the sight, aligned in much the same fashion as we find on Facebook. And that’s okay. People have been using religion to make a living for millennia. People trade on the name of God all the time, from commerce to politics and even entertainment. Tim Tebow is the latest example.
 The Denver Broncos management did the right thing when they designated Tebow their starting quarterback for the 2012 season.

But, from reading a large portion of their information it appears the owners of this site are true believers of Christianity. They have an online Bible, the verse of the day and various other features that indicate these people are either committed Christians — or some very good con artists. But I doubt that’s the case.

That’s not what makes me blanche whenever that commercial comes on TV. It’s this assertion that searching an online website for someone to be your mate will help you find “God’s match.” If it truly were God’s match, why would you have to search? Wouldn’t God put that person in your life and you’d know?

Seriously, what’s to stop a person like me from creating a profile under completely false pretenses? For a con artist, lying a little to sign up for the site and then creating a faux life for the purpose of taking advantage of people is quite easy.

If you choose a con artist, after perusing all the profiles Christian Mingle says best match you, well, whose fault is that? If God were responsible for finding your mate, then wouldn’t God be equally responsible for putting that con artist in your life?

What’s disturbing is these people make this claim, albeit in a backhanded way, that somehow God, in its Christian manifestation, is playing a direct role in putting couples together. All we have to do is create our profiles and pay the subscription fee. Then God will direct us to the right person to be our mate.

No doubt most people can figure out if someone is right for them after a couple dates. You might have some kind of physical attraction to the person but every time you think of talking to or seeing them again, you just don’t want to pick up that phone so the odds of getting too deeply involved with someone who can harm you is rather low.

But the emotionally vulnerable in society are always easy prey for the con artists of the world and religion is one of their favorite vehicles for scams. And being that this is done over the Internets, Christian Mingle could easily be used by con artists to prey on the vulnerable, even though they take precautions to protect their members from that type of person.

The question you have to ask yourself before you sign up for this or any other site that claims some sort of divine inspiration or direction: would God actually involve him (or her) self in a for profit venture? Does God want you to help make someone else rich while you’re looking for a mate? It just doesn’t square with the teachings of Christianity.

I’m not against Christian Mingle, may the site have a long existence and prosper. But what the site really does is put people in front of you who claim to share your religious beliefs. Nothing More. Claiming “God” is having a hand in who you choose for a mate seems quite cynical.

The old adage that’s been with us for centuries still applies: buyer beware.

This is what really bugs me about this site: 85% of Americans believe in a Higher Power — God — and well over half of those people believe in the Christian version. I wish I had thought of this first. It looks to be a great money-maker.

Now I’m going to go back to looking at naked women on the Internets … and crying about the Green Bay Packers losing to the New York Giants.
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Just a short post script; In case anyone was wondering, I got out of the ticket!

Reciting the Canon

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:41:00 -0600

Some years ago I remember watching a news program, an hour special actually, in which a woman reporter was doing a story on a Madrassah in Southeast Asia. Try as I might, I just can’t find it on the Internet. I can’t remember which country was in the piece, but it was close to India. Doesn’t matter all that much at the moment.

The reporter followed one young boy in particular as he went from his home to the school and then on to his studies. Or study. The primary subject being the Koran. According to the young boy and his adult handlers, he read only from the Koran so all of his language skills were built on and around that one book. We can assume there might have been some study in mathematics, or at least arithmetic.

What struck me was how resolute the young boy was about how the Koran was the infallible word of God and only the truest believers of Islam were promised the glory of Heaven. The other moment from the broadcast that stands out was when the TV crew accompanied the young boy to a beach, a really nice beach at that and the little boy pronounced all the women not wearing abayet and Nijab as sinners who would be going to Hell.

This was my thought at the part when they were on the beach: “What a waste of a beach.” It just didn’t seem right that a beach that nice wasn’t filled with bikini-clad women.

Ironically, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is said to have some of the finest beaches in the world and Westerners flock to them by the thousands. They’ve been hit by the economic crisis as well so the travel prices might be really good right about now. But no sex allowed on the beaches!
 If you saw the second Sex and the City movie (or maybe the third?), you know how that can turn out!

Back to the madrassahs. The big focus on them of course has been their perceived ties to terror organizations. When you hear someone in the U.S. mention the schools, it is invariably about how a particular madrassah or group of madrassahs are being used to foment jihadi fervor and recruit young jihadists, schooling them from a young age to be martyrs.

Some people might be surprised to learn not all madrassahs preach and teach Jihadist philosophy. In fact, the word “madrassah” is Arabic for “school” and really isn’t as sinister as we’ve been led to believe. And there are madrassahs for girls as well, although that’s a secret in the Muslim countries that do allow girls to get an education.

What brought that program out of the depths of my memory was the viral video going around of a pint-sized Christian preacher of about four years of age, Kanon Tipton. He stomps around, waving his arms and shouting into a microphone, just like his daddy and granddaddy before him. His language is barely understandable and adults can be heard off camera prompting the little kid on what to say, so it isn’t exactly spiritually inspired.

People call it a gift. Really, preaching is a gift? I call it good showmanship because really, all little Kanon is doing is mimicking his daddy. And you know, little junior mimicking Daddy is pretty cute, it doesn’t matter — most of the time — what it is the child is mimicking.

But, what some of the adults in the room, pick a room, have to say about it is quite disturbing. On the Today program, when the little boy and his parents, Damon and Kandi, were interviewed, Savannah Guthrie called what the little boy was doing a “gift.” Why? Because video of little Kanon preaching became a Youtube sensation?

Yeah, people responded by the millions, but people do that, especially in this country, when kids are declared “precocious” and do cute things for the cameras. Youtube is filled with young children being precocious doing all manner of things. Some years back a famous comedian and comedic actor got in trouble for the precocious child in his short videos.

Will Ferrell and his landlady Pearl. The little girl, about 3 years old, comes to his door and starts yelling at Ferrell, using expletives like “bitch” and “asshole” and says she needs the rent money to get her drink on. She takes her beer, looks likes like a Hiney, and walks off. The videos are on Funny or Die and well, Ferrell should die because they aren’t funny, but, the little girl is precocious! Or so you would think.

But, the child doing adult things that are considered “blue,” well, that’s just not the sort of things we approve of with kids and gosh darnit, if it can’t make it on to America’s Funniest Home Videos, it just isn’t acceptable.

Why is it that the videos featuring small children always win on AFP? It could be a small child kicking some man in the nuts, the crowd roars with laughter, some kid dancing and acting to an otherwise adult-themed song, the crowd applauds with approval; and no matter how good the other videos may be, the kid always wins. Because, in America, it’s all about the children!
 Can we get a collective “aaawww”?

Especially if it’s toddlers doing some adult things — like mimicking Daddy the Pentecostal preacher! Kanon is no longer a toddler, he’s preschool age, but he’s still an internet sensation, so much so he and his parents get interviewed by the #1 morning news program in the world.

Mimicking Daddy isn’t a gift; it’s often funny and almost always heartwarming to see small children mimicking their parents, but some sort of anointment from God? I don’t think so, but then I don’t believe in the “God” espoused by Kanon’s religion. Or any god for that matter.

And this gets back to the connection I saw between the kids being indoctrinated into Islam and little Kanon and all the other small children mimicking adult preachers. Oh yeah, Kanon isn’t first or only child to do this and he’s no longer the youngest. He’s the cute one so he gets all the attention. Just look it up on Youtube and you’ll see a bunch of children wiping the sweat from their brows, doing the little hopping dances, arm raised in the air, microphone in hand, pounding the podiums, exhorting the assembled congregations to come to Jesus!

Here it is, the 21st Century, and we’re celebrating ancient mythologies that deny reality. In fact, we have a leading contender for the presidency who believes evolution and climate change are not real. And we have these small children being programmed to be not just Christians, but to be preachers.
 Hell, even our current president went from being an atheist to a Christian. But, at least he accepts science. Just wish he’d reverse the decision to wind down the space program. But that’s a different rant.

But there is hope! I’m reminded of Marjoe Gortner, the one-time child preacher turned actor and entertainer. It was the groundbreaking, Oscar-winning documentary about Gortner that brought him to the public’s attention. Called Gortner, it detailed the business of being a preacher and what a scam it had become, if indeed being a revivalist had ever been anything other than fraud.

Like the Tiptons, Gortner was brought up in the Pentecostal religion and like Kanon, Marjoe was declared a preacher at the age of four, at the time, billed as the youngest ordained minister in the world.

But since Gortner came to prominence in the 1970’s religion has made a revival in America. Reagan, sucking up to the Religious Right for their votes, gave that movement its impetus. Despite the excesses of the 1960’s and 70’s, a movement to a secular America was the right direction: less regulation of our personal lives, equality for all, especially women and gays, I actually felt some pride in wearing the uniform for such a society.
 It was hard to have pride after watching the colors being lowered for the last time over the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. There is and will always be a little bitterness over that.

We can only hope the revival of religion in America is over, that we will begin to follow the lead of our European allies in rejecting the mythologies of the distant past. But, videos of small children mimicking their preacher parents is bothersome at least, not cute. Troubling because there is this small minority of people who believe little Kanon and his contemporaries are getting their inspiration from a god. And they will use these children to push their oppressive agendas on the rest of us.

It’s a lot more than just kids being cute in front the cameras. Maybe Will Ferrell and his landlady Pearl aren’t so bad.

No End In Sight

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Sun, 22 May 2011 08:01:00 -0600

So, yesterday on my Facebook page I posed the question, “How many people have This Video/Song on their FB walls?” Sadly, Youtube doesn’t allow me to embed it. Gotta figure it’s in the millions, or at least hundreds of thousands. R.E.M. is a worldwide phenomenon of a band and this is probably their most popular song. At least at the moment.

Now, for all the Aged indie types who started following R.E.M. when Jimmy Carter was president, there are other songs by the Georgia band. “Losing My Religion” comes to mind, as does “Stand.”

To be honest, I was a bit slow to the R.E.M. bandwagon, but once “Stand” was released in 1989, I became a fan. Which is funny because “It’s the End of the World” was released two years earlier and most identifies the band for me. But now, watching a host of other R.E.M. videos on Youtube, the rest of their music comes back to memory.

But this isn’t about one of the great rock bands of all time. You want more on R.E.M., check out their Wikipedia page or their Official Website.

The reason the song is so popular is the much-publicized prediction that the world was going to end Saturday, May 21, 2011. At 6 p.m. Or was it 6 a.m.? Doesn’t matter. If you’re reading this then it didn’t happen. Well, actually, what was supposed to happen was the start of the Rapture, from 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 in the Bible.

Most people actually attribute the Rapture to the Book of Revelation — the Apocalypse. Now that’s a book! The Ten Kingdoms, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, Violence, Famine and Death), the Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and finally the Seven Bowls — judgments all, you heathen sinners!”777” is considered the numeric sign for the Christian God, in case you don’t know and in the Apocalypse there are many groups of sevens, as God is going to carry out the end times in a seven-centric plan.
 The Fourth Horseman has been the inspiration for some memorable movies and cinematic moments. “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” Revelation 6:8.

The Devil, on the other hand, is known by his mark: “666,” also in Revelation and has been the basis of many a movie and book. Who can forget The Omen with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as the parents of the Antichrist? Not to mention the Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. Gabriel Byrne played the devil, a bit of an ironic casting considering Byrne spent five years in an Irish seminary studying to become a Catholic priest.

Ever notice that in the best movies about the fight between God and Satan the religion at the center of the story is Catholicism? Think about it: End of Days, The Omen and the granddaddy of all horror films, The Exorcist. Let’s face it, we Catholics are far more dramatic and colorful when it comes to rituals and symbolism. Really, could Dan Brown have written The Da Vinci Code about any other religion?

Could anyone write an epic tale like The Da Vinci Code with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the center? Well, now that I think about that one, possibly, but the Catholic Church is the original Christian religion and has been around for nearly the entire time since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Matthew 16:18.
 What is Peter’s reward for being the foundation of Jesus’ church here on Earth? He gets to guard the Pearly Gates of Heaven! Ah! Once again an allusion to the Book of Revelation!

But this isn’t about St. Peter, the Pearly Gates, scary movies based on the Book of Revelation (or any other part of the Bible), the Catholic Church or great alternative rock bands from the indie era, although quite a bit could be written.

This is about the guy who predicted the End Times were to start yesterday, kook preacher Harold Camping, of Oakland, CA. He also owns the Family Radio Network and according to the good reverend, a massive earthquake was going to hit, striking first in Fiji and New Zealand and working its way around the world — like a big stadium wave.

Well, here in Southern California, where we’ve had our share of earthquakes, not a shake has been felt. Nada. Anyway, all those righteous believers in Jesus Christ were to be be taken up to Heaven, along with all the dead who are (were) true believers, leaving the rest of us to endure the Tribulation and the entirety of the Apocalypse.

Which side are you gonna be on? Doesn’t matter. The end of the world hasn’t arrived. As of 6 pm. Pacific Time as I write this and noon Pacific Time this Sunday Morning (or later) as you’re reading this, we can imperically state Pastor Camping is, once again, wrong.

You might not recall (I sure didn’t) that 15 years ago Camping made a similar prediction, all based on Biblical numbers. And he made the prediction for September 1994 as well. And then when 1996 came and went he said we wouldn’t exist past 2008 — and here we are on May 22, 2011.

Kooks like Harold Camping have been around since The First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Maybe even before that. Nobody really knows for sure. Back then, if a preacher got a following and became too powerful or too far off the reservation, Church elders would just declare the guy a heretic, have him arrested, tortured to Kingdom Come and then put to death the old fashioned way — slow and painfully. That was penance back in the day! None of this “Say three Hail Marys and eight Our Fathers.”

Now the kooks can start a radio network, have a daily radio program and reach millions of listeners. Add the World Wide Internets and even more people can read his nonsense. If they are impressionable; hurt, lonely and vulnerable, they can believe what a kook like Camping says. Like Gay Pride and Same Sex Marriage are signs from God the end is near:
 “But no sign is as dramatic and clear as the phenomenal world-wide success if (sic) the Gay Pride movement. In the Bible God describes His involvement with this dramatic movement. Remember, each and every word in the original languages of the Bible came from the lips of God.”

God is involved with the Gay Pride movement. Actually, there are religious people involved in gay rights and they no doubt believe God is with them, but I don’t think they view God’s involvement in the same way Camping sees it.

The impressionable and vulnerable, looking for answers they can’t find within themselves or from those around them, latch on to kooks like Camping and believe. To show their trust and faith in the kook, whom they think is speaking for God, these faithful send money, lots of it. And then follow the direction of the kook, as thousands did with Harold Camping.

As 913 did with Jim Jones on November 18, 1978 in the jungles of Guyana when they drank cyanide-laced fruit drink and killed themselves. That is the worst threat of kooks like Jones, David Koresh in Waco, Texas, Marshall Applewhite here in San Diego and Harold Camping. Okay, Applewhite’s “religion” was a science fiction-based cult that actually used terms and clothing styles Applewhite got from watching Star Trek, but it’s the same phenomenon. Cult leader says “Let’s all kill ourselves” and they all do.

Camping didn’t call for his followers to kill themselves, but after so many failed attempts at predicting the Apocalypse, what’s next with this guy?

In preparation for yesterday, Camping had his followers collect donations and put up over 1,200 billboards across America. He preached over his radio network … and people believed him so off they went. When the appointed hour came and went, followers were left wondering, “what happened?”

There’s nothing on the various web sites associated with Camping and his merry band since Friday (no tweets either) so maybe Camping and his top lieutenants are hunkered down in their Apocalypse bunker trying to figure out what to do next. Figure out where they got the Biblical math wrong.

The ones I feel sorry for are my many friends and family members who believe in Jesus Christ and do so sincerely. When we laugh at Harold Camping we, indirectly, laugh at all who believe in the same book as the kooks. We often expect “moderate” Muslims explain away kooks like Usama bin Laden and our — my — first impulse is to blame all the other Christians for people like Camping and demand they explain him. But they can’t and shouldn’t need to; Camping has nothing to do with reality. Besides, I love my family and friends even if we do part ways when it comes to religious belief.

On the other hand, next time anyone wants to know why I reject religion, remember Harold Camping and May 21, 2011. Religion, especially the three that worship the God of Abraham, gives license to the crazies of those religions to act out. And that’s just one of my reasons. Then there’s science — and let’s not even get started on Intelligent Design.

The end hasn’t arrived, nor has the Rapture. In a month this will be mostly forgotten and we’ll be back to wondering about Newt Gingrich and his political implosion, or some such political story.

But I must admit this: I had fun mocking Harold Camping and his prediction. It was almost as much fun as mocking Charlie Sheen! My lovely friend Claudia and I were just talking about Charlie and since I brought up Claudia, click her photo and vote to make her the Hooters Octagon Girl for UFC 132! Then watch the R.E.M. video and sing along, it’s a fun song!

Beware: This is the Work of Satan

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:01:00 -0700

This is funny. Due to unwelcome circumstances, I have to share a place with a guy who is Christian. Talk about irony. Not just claims to be Christian, he actually listens to Christian radio exclusively. Actually, I don’t think he really believes it, not all of it, but he’s adrift on an ocean of spiritual and philosophical doubt.

So, at night, like tonight, I can hear his radio, over his snoring, blaring Christian music and Christian sermons on everything from how the Gospel can explain a guy killing members of a church, to Dr. Mel Mulder, author of the self-published book, Beyond Intelligent Design.

Dr. Mulder, a retired surgeon, is of the firm belief that the Earth is no more than a few thousand years old and was created exactly as depicted in the Book of Genesis. He claims that real science, true science, must fall in line with the teachings of the Bible and that Intelligent Design is inadequate because it doesn’t begin with the main theme of the Biblical “God” as the Creator, that it tries to make “God” comprehensible; does not address good and evil, the perfection of Biblical Creation or the nature of the soul, and — God forbid — allows ID adherents to embrace evolution!

Despite the fact that the primary proponents of Intelligent Design state their goal is to bring science in line with believing in a Christian view of a supernatural being called “God.” Not just a Christian view, but one compatible with conservative Protestant Evangelicals.
 For more on that, look up the Discovery Institute, the heart of the Intelligent Design movement.

Mulder rejects even that unsavory group. The upshot is, Mulder uses many of their arguments to support his views on the creation of the universe.

One of the tenets of the Intelligent Design movement, co-opted by Dr. Mulder for his purposes, is the concept of irreducible complexity. “What’s that,” you ask? It’s the notion that there are certain “things” in nature that are so complex, yet so elemental to life (human or otherwise) they can only be explained as having been directly designed by a supernatural being, and what the hay, let’s call that being “God.” Generally biological systems, most of the examples — well, all the examples I’ve found — having to do with certain bits of the human form.
 You have to admire Mulder’s chutzpah; he denounces Intelligent Design and its proponents but uses their philosophical arguments to support his view that Genesis is scientific.

The ID crowd, as well as Dr. Mulder, use the notion of irreducible complexity to promote their two differing views despite that fact—FACT—irreducible complexity has been refuted by the scientific community around the world, not based on opinions, as the notion of “IC” itself is based, but by peer-review investigation in the laboratory.

Intelligent Design started in the previous decade when a bunch of scientists, a handful really, decided they believed in “God,” the Christian version, and got together in … geez … up the coast in Half Moon Bay I believe, to figure out a way to bring their belief in “God” into line with science. Or … maybe bring science into line with their belief in “God.” Either way, the little get-together had less to do with science than philosophy … well, nothing really to do with science other than to talk about it … and that’s when this group of scientists came up with the notion of Intelligent Design and eventually Irreducible Complexity.

Thankfully, the scientific community is large and worldwide and once this group of scientists began publishing their philosophy as science, curious members of the scientific community at large immediately looked into it and … refuted all their claims.

But that doesn’t deter Dr. Mulder. There’s no fact of science and reality that can’t be explained away as a tool or act of Satan. Unless he can twist it to support his view that the Book of Genesis is the only true science related to the formation of the sun, moon, stars and Earth.
 Wonder if he secretly believes the sun, moon and stars orbit the Earth? As the people who formed the Old and New Testaments did when the Bible was first put into written form.

Therein lies the rub of believing such ancient texts to be literally true. In Leviticus we are told we (men) can sell our wives and children and the price of each is set. A boy is worth five shekels and a girl only three. Might explain why diamonds are a girl’s best friends. Slavery is okay, although the definition of slavery in Ancient Judea differs from what we know to be slavery. Male slaves, after six years, are to be released from bondage with a little care package. Female slaves … well, they’re slaves for life.

Ah … it’s crazy. Crazier still is the number of people in this country, a nation considered to be educated, who actually believe as old Dr. Mulder believes. In his “Religion Speech,” written to woo the hard-core and extremist Christian fundamentalists, Mitt Romney bemoans the lack of religious fervor in Europe that is found here in the U.S.
 “I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired ... so grand ... so empty. Raised up over generations, long ago, so many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe's churches. And though you will find many people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away.”

Maybe the people of Europe are kicking aside the superstitions of the past, such as religion. But, thanks to the likes of Dr. Mulder and his ilk, we still debate the reality of evolution, as if the Book of Genesis actually has some scientific merit. Three of the Republican candidates for president, Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback, have said the don’t believe evolution is real. Well, Brownback has quit his quest for the White House, so that leaves Tancredo and Huckabee. Would you want a president who is so out of step with reality?

Well, if you listen to or read Dr. Mel Mulder, you do.

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On a lighter note and what the Hay, as long as this blog is the work of Satan: My friend Danielle is in her third week as the Cyber Girl XTra on Playboy’s Cyber Club web site. Good on ya Dani girl! Yer looking fine! I’m glad we’re friends, proud to call you my friend. Hope this turns into bigger and far better opportunities … in case you’ve forgotten, I’m single! By the way, how’s Mom?