By Bob Quarteroni Let us, from the view of an extreme non-believer, consider prayer, that quaint custom of begging for something from a supposedly omnipotent god — sort of a cosmic dialing for deities. Or, as Ambrose Bierce so nicely put it: “Prayer. To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.” What a mind-boggling concept. Something – some UberAll – looming over a universe that is about 93 billion light years in diameter – is listening to a short-order cook in Cleveland who is praying that he doesn’t get fired. The absurdity is such that you would think rational people would have dropped this concept not long after realizing that the earth wasn’t all that flat and that, despite the mutants who espouse “young earth creationism,” the earth is NOT only a few thousand years old. Hmm. Well, it turns out that there might be less rational people around that I thought. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, four in 10 Americans believe God created the Earth and anatomically modern humans less than 10,000 years ago. More? According to an article in LiveScience, many Americans “could use a refresher course in the basics. For instance, a 2014 National Science Foundation study found that only three out of four Americans know that the Earth revolves around the sun… Large percentages didn’t know that the father’s sperm determines a baby’s sex.” Confessions of a reformed hunter | Bob Quarteroni Yes, blue stork… [Read full story]
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