Rig, what the heck does Darwin have to do with it???? Seriously. Most of the people I know who say they believe in God also have no problem whatsoever believing in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The two do not conflict.

And why would they? Belief in God does NOT require believing hysterically unlikely things like that the World was created 4,000 years ago or that Eve was made out of Adam's rib! Nor does it require having a literal belief in the Bible...or indeed, any belief at all in the Bible as a flawless and undeniable source of spiritual authority.

Strinsinger - Yes, your situation in the USA is unique in the entire western world as far as I know. I know of no other modern society in which atheists come under fire as they do in the USA, and in which politicians are afraid not to be seen publicly attending some church or mouthing their religious faith. It's astonishing, in fact, what goes on in the USA in this regard, and I realize that that is what probably lies behind the extreme reactiveness of some of you here toward anything "religious". It's understandable, in the context of what you are dealing with in the USA in the public sphere.

Ebbie - I'm not saying Patton wasn't a fine general. He was a superb battlefield general. He was, however, quite eager to give the Russians a licking at the first opportunity, and he was hoping to get a chance to do so ASAP when the European war was in its final days. He didn't like the Russians one bit. He envisioned re-employing surrendered German troops in the Allied forces to help fight the Russians...and certainly he would have found hundreds of thousands of German soldiers very willing to join in such an effort and push the Russians back east...but he was jumping the gun. The mood of the general public in Britain and America would not have welcomed a further terrible conflict in 1945. People wanted peace. They wanted an end to the whole thing. The soldiers wanted to go home after securing their hard-won victory over Germany and Japan.

I think Patton's main problem was this, Ebbie. He simply loved being at war. It was his reason for living, it was when he felt most alive and felt his personal destiny being fulfilled to his satisfaction. He was made to fight wars. Soldiers like that are often quite frustrated when their war ends, because they "don't have anything to do" anymore...

I think Patton was such a man, a pure warrior. Such types are few and far between, but they do exist.

On the other hand, I may be wrong... ;-) It's just my personal theory, based on what I've come across about George Patton.