I learned long ago that you can't argue with fundamentalists - but yet you have to live with them, and sometimes need to work in harmony with them to achieve common goals.

Everything Pete says makes perfect sense to him. He believes with all his heart that God can do anything, so of course God can defy the rules of nature and logic. If you believe God can do anything, then why can't this God create everything in its current or near-current status in a period of six days?

I see it as overly simplistic and many of you see it as an outright lie, but that's the way Pete sees it. I think he has a right to hold that position. But I also believe he has a right to speak up and express his position, even within earshot of me and my children. I don't think he has a right to force schools or teachers to teach his position.

I visited the American Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution a couple years ago, and I was fascinated by the exhibit on evolution. I was humbled by the complexity of it all, and realized that my basic understanding of evolution is oversimplified - but it works pretty well for me. I wondered, though, what American fundamentalists think about this kind of stuff being presented in a government-owned institution. There was no mention whatsoever made in the exhibit of the "biblical view of creation."

A while back, I read a number of Internet screeds condemning the fact that there was a "creationist" book for sale in the bookstore of Grand Canyon National Park. I went to that bookstore a few months ago and found hundreds of different books. I didn't see any creationist books there, but I don't know how anyone would find one creationist book among the hundreds.

I think many of you get too darn upset about what fundamentalists think. They have a right to have idiotic incorrect ideas, as we all do.

-Joe-

P.S. Pete, I have to say that lately you've been getting a little testy toward Bill D, and treating him a lot less fairly than he's treated you.