Plagues eh? Reminds me of The Two Ronnies sketch when Ronnie Barker said that a plague of locusts has collided with a load of frogs coming in the other direction. Police are appealing for Jehovas Witnesses.

Having been spending the last two days being dragged around Buddhist temples here in Bangkok I have been picking up on how local guides and others explain their beliefs to we tourists.

I particularly picked up on various people pointing out statues of Buddha sitting on a serpent. They all without exception have called it a mythical serpent. Not a real one, not an extinct one but a mythical one. When looking at wall paintings about the life of Buddha people have spoke of "stories attributed" where unrealistic claims of fantasy were required.

Reminds me of the Maori guides in New Zealand who prefaced most of their speeches with "we traditionally believe. .."

Both seem more refreshing than "truth" a word used by the Christian faith far too regularly for many intelligent people to be taken in by. As I said many times on these threads, the Joe Offer model may be one many non believers could be comfortable with, but it is a small faction in a relentless jealous cult.