Hmm! Well, that's a fresh new theory on Columbus, Guest. You might possibly have something there, I suppose. Columbus does seem to have thought he had reached islands in Asian waters, though, probably assuming he'd reached some part of Indonesia or something. He named the people he found "Indians", precisely because he thought he'd reached the spice islands of Asia.

What the Spanish had instead discovered was the gateway to a gigantic new empire that would make them, for a time, the greatest power in the world...until the English took that title from them.

Bill - You said: "I maintain that it IS possible to accept both: 1)the message in the Bible and treat it as guidance rather than a perfect narrative and 2)the studies of science- treating them as the details of *how* God designed the universe to work after Creation."

Right with you there, Bill. It is when people treat the Bible as a perfect literal narrative (as if it were dictation from God) that they go far astray, in my opinion. Rather, it is a collection of spiritual (and some cultural) writings by many different men, men who certainly intended to deliver a valuable spiritual message, but who were also under the influence of competitive political considerations of all kinds, and under the limitations of their own experience, understanding, and prejudices. They had their own axes to grind, and they didn't all agree with each other by any means.