"Studies show" is to the modern secular college graduate what "Scripture says" is to the religious fundamentalist.-Dennis Prager

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to listen to Dennis Prager in the morning, and today he had an interesting guest. This physicist who was also a religious man had written a book in which he demonstrated present knowledge of science does not disprove God and may even strengthen the case for a higher being. I’d read pretty much the same thing in Darwin’s Black Box, a very good book written by Michael Behe about the irreducible complexity of cell structures, but it was still interesting to listen to. I’ve often wondered why anyone would want to believe that we were just a cosmic freak occurrence; a one in 13 billion shot at achieving life. It seems that life would be little bit more depressing to such people. Then again, some people like to be depressed; victimhood seems to be all the rage these days. Either way, this scientist was very articulate and clear headed; he handled many questions from the audience and did a good job of making very complex issues understandable. Sometimes he’d descend into scripture; he made a very interesting point which Dennis himself has made, but may have done an even better job. He stated that the book of Genesis in the bible is not a “How to create a Universe for Dummies,” that it wasn’t giving us detailed information; rather it was a scathing indictment of the current state of religion at the time. Thousands of years ago, most religions consisted of worshipping nature as it was the most unpredictable and powerful influence on mankind. Humans attributed all types of mystical powers to inanimate objects such as trees or the sun. The book of Genesis states categorically that these are just things; creations by an all powerful supernatural being that exists outside of nature and is, in fact, the master of it. It can be argued that this argument was the first basis for mankind to actually be interested in discovering what makes the world tick as opposed to sacrificing goats to some sun god. Although religious dogma may have gone the to the opposite extremes in the dark ages, it still remains that this strange religion from the Jews is the first to think outside the box, or nature.

I had a signing today with a Mexican fellow who was studying to be a nurse. He was about average height, weight and looks…about as average as you can get. The only striking feature was his wispy mustache that didn’t quite want to grow completely in, sort of like the Mexican comedian Cantiflas. Talking with him, I could see that his eyes were the eyes of an exhausted man; I just assumed that he must have been studying and working, burning the candle at both ends. As our conversation continued, I realized I was only partially right. He was getting the house refinanced so he could take out money to pay to his recently ex-wife. His parting words were, “Never get married.” Hehe…like I haven’t heard that one from my dad before. I know it’s in fashion to blame the man for everything that goes wrong in a marriage, but as I see a lot of court cases, I have to say that the man usually gets the shaft regardless of whether he’s a bad guy or not. I’ve looked at hundreds of divorce cases and I can count on one hand the amount of custody cases that were in favor of the husband. I’ve heard the horror stories from the women’s point of view of the ex not paying, but I’ve heard just as many horror stories from the men of being kept from seeing their children. Hell, I’ve seen a messy divorce up close; my parents didn’t exactly split on good terms and I’ve seen how it becomes a game to turn the children into allies on one side or another. Being that the man’s side is already handicapped for being a guy, guess which side usually wins out? I can understand the advice, but it’s still not worth taking. You can’t live your life running scared from every shadow that may poke it’s head at you.