I can't help but think this is a good thing. Franklin Graham's comments about Islam were simply hateful. I mitt find the clash of religions to be a silly contest about who has the better imaginary friend, but that doesn't mean we have to subject our armed forces to either side calling the other nasty names, especially when the armed forces are made up of atheists, Christians, Muslims, and so on.

One of the problems I had as a member of a church was when people would say that they believed because they felt "something in their heart"- and when I found I didn't have that magical feeling, I wondered if there wasn't something wrong with me. No matter how much I payed, studied, fasted, it just didn't come.

One of the things that lead me away from organized religion was the lack of service to the community as opposed to service for the benefit of the church.

So reading about River Of Grace ministries using its resources to help the less fortunate reminds me of what organized religion *should* be about.

I'll be honest - I'm a believer in the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, mainly because every time it comes in face with the evidence, it has proven itself correct. A century before the discover of DNA and the detangling of the code that makes all life, Darwin's theory has held up as well as that of gravity, planetary motion, and other scientific discoveries.

It's funny. Britain has an official state church. America not only does not, but is not allowed to endorse religion in any way according to the Constitution.

Yet, in Britian, a leading politician can admit they don't believe in the supernatural or divine beings, and that's all right.

Funny how that works out.

For those who are fans of the show "Doctor Who" and its spinoff "Torchwood", you may have noticed that sometimes "The Doctor" - the time traveling alien with a penchant for saving humanity (sometimes from itself, sometimes from other alien races) is sometimes referred to as if he's a god. Which, with his abilities, isn't surprising.

I only found out about this while reading the paper this morning. But at Congregation Rodeph Sholom will be a special movie and music event 15 years in the making by Cantor Moshe Friedler.

It will feature songs and images inspired by Wiesel's book, "One Generation After". If you get the chance to go, you might discover something new.

I thought this was neat. A graph indicating the income levels of various religious groups.

Some of them didn't surprise me. For example, the Jehovah Witnesses on average make far less than the national average, and considering their opinion of college education being a distraction from worship, this could be taken as an explanation of their lower earning power.

Recently there was a big brou-haha of a famous commentator claiming that "social justice" was the same thing as communism and naziism, and that anyone who's church preached "social justice", they should turn and run as quickly as possible.

Which is something someone would say if they were incredibly ignorant of what "social justice" actually meant and wanted to twist the meaning of the term into something to make people afraid of.

How would the majority of Christian churches look like if they actually followed the teachings of Jesus? I know, sounds like a paradox, but one I'm interested in looking into after checking out this review of the book "If the Church Were Christian, Rediscovering the Values of Jesus.".

After seeing all of the different kinds of Christian denominations, it would be interesting to compare their beliefs and practices against what the proposed progenitor of their church had said.