And likely signs of past life. Kudos to JPL! If this, short of a spacecraft from another planet landing on Earth, doesn't throw a minor monkeywrench into various religious institutions and their dogmas I don't know what will. How can they explain away life - past or present - on other planets? Apparently in the near future JPL is planning to use space telescopes to search for indirect signs of evolved life on planets outside our solar system, by looking for anomalous spectrographs. If a planet shows such anomaly it may be that some thing has messed with the expected state for the planet. Or, to put it a little clearer, Earth's atmosphere would be lot different if we hadn't polluted it. Our atmosphere has changed because our of activities, deviating our planet from the norm for such planet types and thus showing signs of affective activity.

But now I'm deviating. Life on other planets poses a serious theological problem. Why would God bother?


Was it practice? Surely, God wouldn't have to practice in creating Life.


Was it on purpose? But why lay down geologic strata and fossils? Why mislead scientists into believing that processes other than God were the cause for what is? Is it a test of Faith, of Free Will, of Gullbility, of Intelligence?

Occam's razor suggests the simplest explanation is usually the best. Certainly no explanation can be simpler than "God did it!". Yet, when you consider the evolutions of Life, the changes to our Geography, you have to question why God would go through the trouble of suggesting all these other processes at work. Worse, one easily gets the notion that if God created everything, he/she is gone, no longer actively involved. Our telescopes can see stars and planets forming - no God present. Is that how we formed? Why not? Why would God form us in 7 days but then have this formation process out there?

Sure, Occam's Razor may support "God did it" as a statement but applied to reality the razor would slice the God explanation out of qualifying. It's too Ptolemaic. You have to add too many orbits to explain things and eventually it all collapses under it's own absurdities. Religions, to explain reality, has to change their doctrines beyond a simple "God did it!" mentality. They have to evolve to embrace Science in order to make sense of what's happening here. That or the populace has to be kept in a state of scientific ignorance with critical thinking kept to a bare minimum.

Perhaps God doesn't exist. Maybe natural processes are the result of, well, Nature and not some supreme sentient power. Note that word sentient. It's easy enough to define God as the great ruling power but to attribute to it some sort of intelligence implies also sentience, and that's where I believe the dogmas fail. Why not define God as the grand power - synonymous with Nature - and leave it at that. No need to worship the grand power - it wouldn't care or matter. No sentience or intelligence, just IS.

Of course, the Churches would lose TREMENDOUS power and wealth if people held that view so God is made according to the interpreters need and can therefore be Just, Kind, Forgiving, Vengeful, and - why not? - Ecstatic, Romantic, or downright Horny. We interpret God in our image.

Maybe God is real and kicking back, sipping a double mocha capuccino, and watching our antics with amusement. But that's a God not worth worshipping and forget prayer then. If God doesn't care about us enough to get involved, well, I'm not going to get involved with God. If God IS involved with us his/her presence is darn indistinguishable from random events. And, I'm sorry, randomnessisn't worth worshipping either. Hey God! Got a suggestion. Hire a decent PR firm. Make the clouds form a message like "I am God!" or better yet just do a worldwide booming voice type message. Forget using TV preachers. They beg, scream, and cry too much, and ask for too much money - which sends the wrong message. Are you listening out there?

Prayer and Hope

Forgive me if I mentioned this incident before. On the news the reporter was reacting to a story of a girl kidnapped and killed. He said something like "We pray to God it doesn't happen [referring to the kidnapping]. We prayed to God for her safe return." Then he avoided the obvious conclusion that prayer doesn't work and said "We're angry that it happened." Of course, angry at the incident but how about anger at the Deity who didn't fulfill your prayers?

And the classic: two teams pray for victory before a game. One team wins. Does the other then stop praying before games? How does one become worthy? Winning games? So God loves a winner...

How much praying must people do before realizing that praying just flat out doesn't work. Billions of people pray every week and look what good comes from it. How about a day of no praying where instead you do something productive, like pick up garbage from the streets, clean grafitti off walls...something to make our existence on the planet a bit more palatable. How about Heaven on Earth even for those perhaps not worthy of such?

Government and Business

In a moment of mental clarity I realized the our Government is a business. Not just influenced by outside corporations but a true business. We are the customers. Granted this analogy is far from perfect. As customers we are required to pay for services through taxes. We can't easily shop around for another Government to fulfill our Ruling needs. (We can but that requires movement of home and hearth.) And many of the Services we don't want to pay for or use.

Ironically our Government as a business is a monopoly and is a perfect example why our Government policies are anti-monopoly. Our Government is bloated, wasteful of resources, poorly managed, and often times provides crappy customer service. If our Government were a true business it've gone belly-up long ago. But unlike most businesses it has a Military to make sure it's not going out of business.

What if our Government could be privatized or outsourced? I'm surprised the Republicans haven't jumped on this as a means to shrink Government and send money to their friends who'd be the likely recipients. Shouldn't have said it...Bad Mahatma.

On The Front Page

of the Friday LA Times: a picture of Bush campaigning in California. The caption mentioned that part of Bush's campaign theme was that Kerry sought to increase Government size. Would someone please hit Bush upside the head and point out to him that his "Administration" was directly responsible for the behemoth Department of Homeland Security which didn't shrink Government one damn bit.

Also an article about the organized Religious Right using the courts to sue those who offend them - in this case the same-sex marriages done in San Francisco. Their justification: They want laws banning such behavior because it violates their Freedoms of Religion and Speech. What the Puckered Right fails to recognize, or perhaps they do, is that if a behavior like same-sex marriages or an exposed Jackson nipple offends them and their beliefs...I believe the quote is "turn the other cheek". By striving to pass laws barring such behaviors they try to impose their beliefs on others and restrict others of their Freedoms. Freedom means exactly that - liberty to make a choice. Same-sex marriages bother you, choose to not participate in one - don't ban them. But as we discover daily the agenda of the Puckered Right led by his royal righteousness Bush is to restrict as much as possible in the name of Freedom.

No More Pizza Before Bed

Had a terrible time getting to sleep last night. I kept flopping between two visions: One of Nikki Cox as Team Rocket's Jessie from Pokemon, long, red hair waving the wind, wearing a tight midriff-revealing ensemble. She looks at me and says "Prepare for trouble..." - woof!

The other vision: I'm the director of Atlas Shrugged starring Hudson Leick as Dagny. I keep picturing her in one of the early scenes in the book where there's a train derailed and she takes charge when her stupid, incompetent brother who's company President can't make a decision.

Mind you, the visions weren't bad or anything but they kept me awake. I cast Hudson as Dagny because in the book Dagny comes across a strong, focused, and intense character, and if you saw Hudson as Callisto on Xena many moons ago that's her type of character. My alternate choice would be Nicole Kidman but she's beginning to look a bit long.

Presidential Morality Quiz

Dear Bush,

As President-Appointed you constantly invoke God in your speeches making it appear that you are not only our political leader but our moral leader as well. To verify this please take the following quiz:

1. I have never lied. (a) True (b) False

2. I have never used violence as a solution. (a) True (b) False

3. I have never used drugs or abused alcohol. (a) True (b) False

4. I have never abused my employment position to benefit friends or family. (a) True (b) False

5. I have never been arrested. (a) True (b) False

6. I have raised my children morally. They don't lie. (a) True (b) False

7. I have raised my children morally. They don't use drugs or abuse alcohol. (a) True (b) False

8. I have raised my children morally. They have never been arrested. (a) True (b) False

If you answered the questions all true you are indeed the moral leader we seek. However, we have documented proof that at least one answer should have been False. Therefore you are a liar, not someone we want in the most powerful job on this planet. More importantly, how dare you pose as a moral authority. You are a fraud.

If you answered at least question as False then you have a moral flaw and do not deserve the most powerful job on this planet.

See Georgy, things get much easier if you don't bring morality and religion into Politics since there is no high ground in a gutter.