I'm not religious, I'm agnostic. I tend to look at things from a few different perspectives.

Name one scientific proof concerning creationism.

Name one scientific proof concerning evolution.

In my eyes they are both faith-based. I think we should all open our minds to other possibilities.

Call a salivating creationist out and tell him he's wrong and he'll call you the devil. Call a salivating Darwinist out and tell him he's wrong and he'll call you religious or a Nazi. Neither can delve too deep in their beliefs because they are just that; beliefs.

Creationists dismiss evolution out of hand and those who deeply believe in evolution dismiss creationism out of hand while neither have been proven to exist nor proven to not exist.

Creationism and Darwinism are both adhered to with what can only be called "religious fervor" IMHO.

*Steps back while you call him a God-nut or a Nazi.*

Let's take a person at random, be it a scientist or a Wal-mart associate, who believes that evolution is the way human beings came to be.

Ask her why she believes this when she has never seen a fish evolve into an amphibian or a lizard evolve into a bird. If she answers truthfully she will say she believes it because someone told her this or she read it in a book.

Take another person at random from the same stock who believes God created the universe and human beings and ask her why she believes it even though she has never seen a talking burning bush or some guy sit down and feed St. Louis with a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread and she will give you the exact same truthful answer.

An example of a proof is easy: Pick up your mouse and hold it about two inches above your mouse pad and, with no outside influences affecting it, release it. What happens? We say gravity affected it and even though we know something that we call gravity exists we don't EXACTLY know how or why it exists. It just does...and so do we. How gravity really works and how we got here are all hypothesized. We don't know enough to say, with authority, "This is how it happened..." If we're peer-reviewed we have to say, "This is how we think it happened..."

Remember something called The Missing Link? It's still missing. We think we're evolved from ape-like ancestors even though we've found no proof of that. It's something someone told us or we've read it in a book. Do you understand what I mean?

We talk about fossils and rock strata even though that road is mired neck-deep in circular reasoning. We talk about animals evolving over time and forming legs and coming out of the water even though everything we acknowledge about the Cambrian Explosion belies all of it.

We are here...and that mouse fell and hit your mousepad with an audible noise. Those events actually happened. They are REAL.

My question is how did they REALLY happen?

Evolution and creationism, the two most well known, make attempts to answer that question but it would seem both hit dead ends a long time ago. Now it's simply a matter of what you believe in.

I want to thank you for not calling me a Jesus Freak or a Nazi. As I'm sure you've noticed when someone questions evolution in forums such as this one, personal attacks usually evolve, no pun intended *grin*, rather quickly.

Europe is the way it is because the US is the way it is.

Talk of European military strength is moot. They couldn't mount a hypothetical invasion to anywhere off the European continent because they have no transportation nor enough manpower and equipment. We would provide that transportation and manpower and equipment. That's the way it is set up.

Name the European countries who have a military capable of defending their own border against an invasion. *The lonely sound of crickets.* Perhaps Germany or the UK? Seriously. Europe doesn't have a military to speak of because WE DO. If you want to see evidence of this theory that is a little closer see Canada.

Now add increased military spending to the European budgets to account for the loss of ours. Remember the 40+% taxes already. Remember middle-class Swedes already can't afford cell phones without subsidies. I'd call that very sustainable, wouldn't you?

The easy objection to the US adopting this model is the economic one. Europe entirely missed out on the 80's and 90's boom. French unemployment has been far worse than the US' for two decades. Europe's unemployment rate has been twice the US' and become a part of normal life. Germany has averaged 1.1 percent growth since the mid 90's and every economic indicator of a healthy economy, home ownership, new car registrations, etc., is on a pronounced downward trend.

I could go on and on. Perhaps I will.

Did I mention the Brussels city council has a Muslim majority? Did I mention the Muslims in The Netherlands government are starting to crack down on gay bars?

It's not called "Eurosclerosis" for nothing.

Want to talk about European fertility rates? Want to talk about the immigrant "workers" in Europe? Civic volunteerism? I know! Let's talk about the fact that Europe isn't contributing to the arts as much as they used to! What's happening with that??? Are they getting...lazy or, even worse, complacent?

While some of us Americans seem to have their heads in their...the clouds, others of us have been watching. Isn't that cool?

Here we have a Salon op piece moaning about our rising unemployment rate when we're still not even halfway to Europe's unemployment rate when, at the same time, we have another op piece extolling the virtues of moving to a European-style government.

I'm laughing my ass off.