I do not think that animals are capable of evil.

Having lived with cats, having watched a mother cat training kittens to hunt, I came to the conclusion that while a cat playing with a mouse seems cruel to me, it seems to serve a training role for the cat.

I have faith that most behavior that we see in nature that we perceive as cruel serves a purpose to the animal.

Charles Darwin said he lost faith when he saw one insect being cruel to another.

"To Darwin, Natural selection produced the good of adaptation but removed the need for design, and he could not see the work of an omnipotent deity in all the pain and suffering such as the ichneumon wasp paralysing caterpillars as live food for its eggs."

Why he did not see the same thing much earlier in man slaughtering sheep is a wonder to me.

The man knows the sheep suffers. The wasp does not known the same about the caterpillar. I probably should mention the story about eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil here. But would you understand that I take it as a clever little story that illustrates a profound philosophical point rather than a factual account of a talking snake? I think that Charles Darwin was much smarter than me and before he went on the Beagle he studied theology. I wonder why he didn't see that philosophical point?

I think that maybe he did but he was looking at each new aspect of nature he discovered and asking "Does this evidence support the God I have learned about or does it not?" Lucky for me, I live in a time when the average person has access to far more information about nature than Darwin did, including 150 years of the study of his own theories. I don't feel qualified to question God.

I feel awe and wonder at the fact that so much can be explained by a few simple theories. Gravity, inertia, natural selection, the phases of water, the "shape" of the carbon atom. In "A Brief History of Time" I think I remember Hawking saying that he saw God in elegant laws.

I'm not saying that I do. I don't know. I can't know, I am not equipped to know.

I do know this about belief and Atheism. If Jesus came back today, leading a host of angels and killed all of his enemies with a wave of his hands and if he brought peace and prosperity to the whole world curing all wants and greed and evil lust. A lot of people would still be skeptical. They would say it was space aliens, as if a host of beings traveling over light years of distance were less unlikely. Or they would think it was an illusion or a hoax or a coincidence. They might even question their own mental health.

People can't be argued into believing. They can't be argued into not believing.

To the ardent atheist I would say that railing against someones beliefs is counterproductive and in the long run erodes society.

Most people do not have the time or inclination to seek the answers for themselves. Most people need and want reinforcement of what they do believe.

In an increasingly atheist society, the closest thing to filling the role of religion and The Church is the popular media. Most of the message of popular culture is in advertising.

Is it really less desirable for people to believe in an invisible God who loves them than believing that if they drink "Lite" beer they will be surrounded by beautiful, available women? And when the beer destroys their libido and plumps up their bodies, the is a little blue pill, and liposuction.....

People are inclined to fill their minds with crap. Be it Pat Robertson Crap or Brittney Spears crap or for this forum maybe Bob Dylan crap or murder ballad crap.

If you don't like the effects of religion, offer something better that fills the same needs.

Between 64% and 65% of Japanese are atheists. Apparently some fill religious needs with elaborate rituals and codes of behavior. But note that this did not come without a price. The price in the not so distant past, being a caste of heavily armed warriors chopping the heads off non-conformists.

RINGO STARR lyrics - It Don't Come Easy

(Richard Starkey)

It don't come easy,
You know it don't come easy.

It don't come easy,
You know it don't come easy.

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don't come easy.
You don't have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.

Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won't last,
It will soon be over tomorrow.

I don't ask for much, i only want your trust,
And you know it don't come easy.
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time,
And you know it just ain't easy.

Open up your heart, let's come together,
Use a little love
And we will make it work out better.

(ah -)
(ah -)
(ooh-ooh)
(ah-ooh-ooh)

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don't come easy.
You don't have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.

Peace, remember peace is how we make it,
Here within your reach
If you're big enough to take it.

I don't ask for much, i only want your trust,
And you know it don't come easy.
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time,
And you know it don't come easy.