When I read about Francis Collins in Guidepost, I was excited to have discovered a fellow Deist. Upon researching further, I realize he is an Evangelical Christian, as well. I respect every man's chosen beliefs as his God-given right. One very important question: (very important to me) By what means other than "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, did Francis Collins come to accept the Bible as the inspired word of God?

Oh, the devil exists, all right.

He and his minions have been in the White House for the last six years.

-Anonymous and KC!

So far nobody has even touched on the other side of the article (maybe they have... I've been skipping around in the letters sections since the middle 50s)- that if one buys the God & Jesus argument, one must also buy the Satan End of the World argument.

If you believe in a powerful evil force with a host of demonic minions, all of whom have various magical powers, how can you belive that any of your data is accurate? Perchance SATAN arranged those DNA molecules just so when you were looking at them. Hah! Gotcha, mortal! Muhahahaha!

Then, of course, we have the end of the world stuff. Sigh... again with the end of the world.

Keep the confidence, boys (and/or girls), remember, once you give in to the idea that God may exist outside of space/time and blah blah blah, then the devil isn't far behind, and you're right back into middle-eastern Bronze Age hogwash.

Actually, I was thinking of the title, Viper's Tangle, as a describing of your construction of Christianity/Judaism, but then the main character’s treatment of and attitudes regarding his family resembles your treatment of C/J. My suggestion was an allusion rather than a one to one comparison. (I too read it long ago -26 years, so I am relying upon aged memory.)

I visited D&C (hmmm) at Barnes and Noble—my thoughts about this are too much to go into now; life calls, but I will try tossing something else: How about if you look into He Is There and He Is Not Silent, by Francis A. Schaeffer?

...but I read it in high school. And I can't help but chuckle at your recommendation.

It was an entertaining and somewhat thought provoking read, and it helped me overcome some pride and attitude with my parents. Some, not all.

Anyway, that was years ago, and the relationships in my life are happy and healthy as can be expected. If you in any way think that you can project the behavior of the main character of that book (forgot his name) onto me, you're sorely mistaken.

I find "The Elementary Particles" (forgot author's name, but it was translated from French) paints a more accurate picture of the selfish life without meaning. That's a scary book.

I have an idea: why don't you go check out "Doubt and Certainty" by Rothman and Sudarshan.

my self-correction/clarification, I believe.

If you check you will see that I meant (and said) the Christianity/Judaism of your portrait is a scarecrow. (I used "scarecrow" on purpose, for the overtones.) I certainly do not intend, nor do I think I am able, to repair with my keyboard or by any other means the intense construction that you understand as Christianity/Judasim. But it seems to me that you build the strawman and blow him away. May I suggest reading the novel Viper's Tangle by Francois Mauriac?

I really must quit this and read aloud a chapter in a George MacDonald fairy tale to my 11 year old son. GM was a mentor for C.S. Lewis.

Exo.4:21 "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" Have you heard of ``Factitious Disorder by Proxy'', in which someone makes someone else sick in order to gain attention, respect, or worship?

He wants to show his mercy and make himself look good by setting us up to fail, then giving us a way out! Oh what mercy! It isn’t merciful for someone to make you sick in order to make you better and gain praise – that is demented, selfish cruelty.

Who could this be?

"At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols." - Aldous Huxley (supposed creationist?)

"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."

&

"The usual argument of religious people on this subject is roughly as follows: "I and my friends are persons of amazing intelligence and virtue. It is hardly conceivable that so much intelligence and virtue could have come about by chance. There must, therefore, be someone at least as intelligent and virtuous as we are who set the cosmic machinery in motion with a view to producing Us." I am sorry to say that I do not find this argument so impressive as it is found by those who use it." - Bertrand Russell

"What was it that Adam ate that he wasn't supposed to eat? It wasn't just an apple. It was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The subtle message? 'Get smart and I'll fuck you over' sayeth the Lord. God is the smartest, and he doesn't want any Competition. Is this not an absolutely anti-intellectual religion?" - Frank Zappa

"I have absolutely no knowledge of atheism as an outcome of reasoning, still less as an event: with me it is obvious by instinct. I am too inquisitive, too questionable, too high spirited to rest content with a crude answer. God is a crude answer, a piece of indelicacy against us thinkers—fundamentally even a crude prohibition to us: you shall not think! "

&

"Faith is not wanting to know what is true."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; he will set them above their betters."

-H.L Mencken

" If we are going to teach 'creation science' as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction."

-Judith Hayes

"Accepting 144,000. Fuck the rest. "

-God