Schools teach evolution as if it were fact; science books teach children that we descended from apes.

Since when did unsupportable theories become accepted as fact? If 2+2 only might possibly = 5, do we change math books to insist on theoretical math? Remember, it is but Darwin's THEORY of evolution, folks -- not fact, and it will always only be a theory.....for in order for the theory of evolution to become fact, There MUST BE TRANSITIONAL FORMS, intermediate forms. There are NONE. No, not one. Not one shred of evidence for graduated evolution. Galapagos turtle, or no; it is STILL turtle DNA. One species; many kinds. Thank God for DNA; it may ultimately prove the undoing of this theory.

We have a huge problem in our world. We readily believe what sounds believable. We believe what gives us comfort. We believe what we want to believe, so long as no one feels bad. We even let our children believe in Santa Claus. But when a society starts accepting philosophical indulgence as fact, it forsakes truth at a high price. World events of the past year alone should be a real wakeup call for us. We must snap out of our narcissistic haze and start asking real questions, start demanding some real evidence. We only know what we are told. We do not investigate.

Let's start by considering the preponderance of violence in schools.

I have a theory about children and guns......

Perhaps when young people are told over and over that we descended from apes, they lose hope. They begin to believe that outcomes are random happenstance, the universe is spiralling into chaos, only the strong will survive -- natural selection rules. Is life really about the law of the jungle? Are we really animals? What point is there to life? Just to be successful?

From early on, children witness our society acknowledge and embrace the strongest, the fittest, the wisest, the prettiest, the smartest, the richest, and see us disregard everyone else. What are they supposed to think about our lack of regard for the ordinary? For mediocrity? The poor in spirit? Survival of the fittest. What or who controls things, the future, then? Is no one in control? Is it up to the individual? And they then attempt to take control of their own lives........or lose hope altogether. It seems to be, at least in this country, up to the individual to take charge of his or her life. It appears that the responsibility for the outcome of things rests within each of us individually. We hear this psycho-babble so much that it seems to offer a logical answer for what is happening in our world. Taking control of one's self. Taking charge of one's future. Taking resposibility for one's life. We hear these phrases all the time. They are in our consciousness. But what outcome for the greater whole does each of us taking control of our own lives, truly effect? If we each are invovled within only ourselves, where is our empathy going? If we forsake others' needs in pursuit of self-understanding and self-improvement, are we destroying our own ability to empathize? If we each march to our own drummer and play by what is best for each of us, can such behavior be called anarchist in type? What kind of outcome does social and/or theological anarachy typically proffer?

Who or what, then, is taking away our children's hope?

Society today seems to show little regard for people who are merely average, unremarkable, ordinary -- for we are more inspired by the remarkable, more excited by the extraordinary. But what about those who are just average? Which type comprises the larger percentage of our population? What is the ratio of remarkable people you remember from your own lifetime, in contrast to the more ordinary ones? Ordinary, at least in my neighborhood, seems to comprise the larger percentage of people living here. Yet, according to the theory of natural selection and the theory of the survival of the fittest, that percentage, those "ordinary" humans, may not be "fitter" to survive in society. Ordinary "average-ness" certainly does not distinguish itself in academia, in church, in the work place, in government, or in history. They are just the rythm players in the band, while it's the soloists who get noticed. The quarterbacks are the stars, not the linebacks. The valedictorians, not the C-students; the generals, not the footsoldiers. Jesus' miracles are memorable, not His washing of His disciples feet......

Our world is stimulated by the the extraordinary, not the common; we are motivated by success, and we are awed by celebrity. Is it possible that our children can tell that all those "ordinary" rest are being somewhat ignored? It certainly felt that way in school when I attended. Has it changed? Does the valedictorian still deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class? Who is the voice for the ordinary? Is it a crime to be ordinary? Who notices the lonely?

Well, then, why shouldn't children lose hope if only the few remarkable ones are noticed because the rest are -- at best -- ordinary, or, at worst -- losers. If your peers label you as a loser because you are not remarkable -- why bother trying? You are unfit. You will just fail. Society identifies with winners, not losers. Children see students cheat to keep up their grades . They see politicians lie to win. They hear their friends lie to keep from suffering the consequences of their choices. They hear their parents criticize poor performance..........well, after all, we're just human. And according to science, our family trees are full of livestock. And if that's true, if we truly evolved from apes, why shouldn't we imitate the rest of the animal kingdom, adopting a survival of the fittest modus operandi. Why shouldn't we do whatever is necessary to maintain control of our own lives. And if owning a gun makes us fitter; get a gun. Owning guns makes a body powerful. Heck, just holding a gun makes you feel powerful. Where in our inimitable society are we ever encouraged to be meek, to be ordinary, or to lose? Natural selection prevails in our society, right? I mean, isn't that why we have evolved into higher and better life forms than those dumbasses who built the pyramids? We can build smart-missiles, and rockets to go into space, and computer chips the size of a molecule, right? We can build a better aquaduct, a better mousetrap.........right?

Ever watched Jerry Springer...........

What about those who are below ordinary in the food chain? What about those who are "less than zero." The outcasts. Social misfits. Those who neither fit in with the exceptional, nor the ordinary. You know them. Your children know them. Sometimes they make not fitting in an art form. Sometimes they abuse their own bodies to create a walking testimonial to their own misfit-ness. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Losers. Did any of those killer kids perceive of themselves as losers? How did their peers perceive them? Maybe their only crime was they were different. One was just small for his age. Why do kids tease one another so much? Why do they ridicule others' differences? Is this evidence of evolution -- is discrimination a natural byproduct of having apes in the family tree? Or are children only imitating what they see their parents do?

The weak have long been an embarrassment to society (...street people, winos, the mentally ill, minority groups...), undesirable (those who don't appear to fit in with the rest, or are handicapped), and should not be rewarded in our society; for we operate under the misgiving that the rest of us via evolution are somehow getting better. Rewarding losers creates false hope. (Remember that scene in Schindler's List where Oskar Schindler [Liam Neeson] convinces the SS to hose down cattle cars crammed full of heat-exhausted jews, and Goeth, the nazi [Ralph Feinnes], comments on this merciful act by saying, "...this is REALLY cruel, you are giving them false hope [of life] )."

In our country, we put the medically incurable out on the street, they are too big a financial burden for society to carry. Natural selection will ultimately prevail anyway -- the weak will be naturally eliminated (exterminated), right? Rid ourselves of the burden and social flotsam. Just like in a video game. Easy, without remorse. If a disaster like West Nile virus or famine appears on the horizon, the old and the weak will go first, right -- it's logical. It is apparent. Just watch the discovery Channel. Make sure you sit in a comfortable chair. How about that new game show rave, The Weakest Link?

Consider society's prevailing mentality of "success at all costs," and how such an intolerance for losers might be related to violence from them. Those kids who were/are the perpetrators of violence in schools -- did they feel like they truly belonged? Did they feel accepted by the other popular students, or like they had to overcome the stigma of being "outsiders" in their class with the use of ultimate control? Who were they angriest at? How did they attempt to level the perceived playing field? Survival of the fittest. Kill the opposition. Our children babysit themselves with video games which let them annihilate imaginary enemies. Survival of the fittest. We put a baseball bat in a kid's hands before we ever give them coping tools for life. Now some who feel unacceptable are choosing guns as their great equalizer, and we are surprised? And they appear to indifferent to the consequences.... This phenomenon of school violence is in no way going to disappear. No, instead, via the media and violence's persistence, our society will ironically and sadly GROW ACCUSTOMED TO ITS PRESENCE.

Last week I heard CNN dispassionately refer to the recent California school shooting as "that week's school shooting...."

Last fall in our neighborhood grocery store produce section, I saw a handwritten sign hanging over the tomatoes which read "KILL WIMBERLY!!" Yeah, I know; it's only a local high school football team, but is it possible we don't even see what we are doing to each other. Baby boomers think back; remember Dale Carnegie courses? How about Timothy Robbins? Who coined phrases like like"how to succeed in business", or "how to excel in education" or "how to get rich quick in the stock market" or "how to win friends and influence people" or "how to empower yourself" or "how to have your cake and eat it, too"? Does the late bird get the worm? Why not. Are there not enough worms to go around?

Where -- ANYWHERE -- are we encouraged toward those nearly extinct virtues of meekness, humility, patience, longsuffering, kindness, selflessness, and self-sacrifice? We aren't. Those attributes are truly discouraged in this society, folks, I mean, whoever heard of humility being a greater virtue for athletes? Which institution gives awards to the meek? No, it is a dog-eat-dog world, folks (pardon another animal metaphor), and, yes, it has indeed proven to be the early bird who gets the worm... And wouldn't you agree that a dog-eat-dog, early bird, best-defense-is-a-good-offense kind of planet is proving to be a great place to live and raise children? Lets increase our odds for disaster and....uhmmm-m-m, put a gun in their hands. Let's teach fearful, frustrated, angry children who have been taught that in this world it's the the survival of the fittest --to shoot. By all means! And let's buy more guns and rationalize our choices using the constitution to justify them, (It's my right to bear arms ---against what?? Another guy with a gun???) thus perpetuating our fear, paranoia, lust for power.....

Buy a gun. Become powerful yourself. But what you do not realize is --you CANNOT control bullets. Faced with real danger and one real surge of adrenaline (from fear, anger), and most decent people pee themselves and cannot maintain control of their weapon.

"I don't know what happened -- the gun just went off....."
Most murders are committed by family members AGAINST FAMILY MEMBERS. Look at statistics.

If one of you has any first hand experience to call upon regarding the efficacy and life-sustaining qualities of owning handguns, and are not merely parroting the words of others you admire, let him/her truly respond. I, on the other hand, DO have experience with weapons -- from both sides of the barrel -- and can confidently submit that our collective consciousness has been seduced by a powerful darkness which is only interested in persuading souls away from simple logic (among other things), hence devouring truth. For the simple truth is -- guns kill. PERIOD. Guns in any citizen's hand breeds only a depraved indifference to life (such as hunting for sport; not food--we have grocery stores) -- guns do NOT promote a healthy regard for life.

Please don't talk to me about needing one to protect your sister from being raped. I have been raped. Many rapists carry guns, too, and are probably a lot calmer than you (due to a highly-refined sense of sociopathy) under the circumstances, and as a result, a more accurate shot than you are. I have also been held at gunpoint. Four diffent times, by four diffent individuals. For no reason. Do you know what being paralyzed with fear is? It is when your adrenalin pumps so hard that your body o.d's on it, rendering your arms and legs useless. In that instant, your gun is no good unless it obeys mental telepathy.

Picture this -- most people haven't shot many real human beings, but maybe you have shot some cardboard ones at the shooting range, and so while trying to protect yourself from burglars/rapists in your own house, you accidentally shoot your own children in an adjacent bedroom (through the wall), trying to protect yourself (or your sister from the aforementioned rapist)---that is, if the perpetrator, too, isn't holding a gun on all of you. Let's say, though, that you have a really good, expensive gun --a big one, full of bullets.... let's say that under duress your hands begin to sweat and shake but still work and you shoot but miss and actually HIT an innocent neighbor in his or her driveway while trying to protect your valuables, because due to your surging adrenaline you aren't accurate and shoot through your drywall with your hefty firearm KILLING AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER -- and -- duh, your sister gets raped anyway, so then the rapist/burglar just shoots YOU because he stayed cool and because with your one chance, you missed and are now dead.

FYI, I talked my way out of being shot. All four times.

Sadly, statistics show, the chances of accidental homicide increase exponentially with each weapon purchased by well-meaning citizens.

A gun is a symbol of power, anyway; not protection. Guns seduce their owners by luring him/her into a false sense of security by seeming to give the owner CONTROL. But this is what seduction is. It is a lie. YOU CANNOT CONTROL BULLETS. Gun owners, alone, demonstrate how powerful the drug of self-delusion is. The NRA is the most powerful lobby in our country. Ask Jim Brady. They pay BIG MONEY to get gun laws overturned or ignored. How much did they pay Moses (sorry; Charleton Heston) to be the spokesman for the NRA -- I mean, he must have needed the money---WHAT MOVIES HAS THIS GUY MADE LATELY??? He took that $$$$ and laughed all the way to the bank, people. HE IS AN ACTOR. We think of him as Moses. Would Moses lie? How about "Thou shalt not kill......" Whom do we believe. I am horrified at how quintessentially EASY our seduction appears to be.

"It's my choice; my constitutional right to bear arms," you say.

And for every bad choice on this planet, there is someone who justified that choice without regard for the consequences. Remember, while you may make the choice, people -- you cannot also choose the consequences of your choice. You will, however, ultimately have to account for them. No matter what you has chosen to believe in the interim.

There is a song I have heard which says:

"So you call out to your brothers
Yes, you raise the battle cry
While you fornicate the others
You would love what you despise;
Tell me, who does tend the children
While you're polishing your throne?
The Wolf is in the Garden
And your lambs are all alone...."

OK...pick your metaphor; how about -- serpent is in the garden?

Do you really think our world is evolving????? I think the only hypothesis which could possibly conclude that humans are - in the slightest way - improving with each generation, is one that would propose a monkey as our ancestral conerstone, because compared to a monkey, we look a little better. The truth is, we cannot make a better pyramid, aquaduct or mousetrap. We look bad. And I look in the Bible and see that man is worse. He is not getting smarter, he's getting dumber because now he really is ignoring history, all the accumulated actual evidence, and, as God so aptly put it, "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel." Certainly, that camel of the theory of graduated evolution.

We might question more if we weren't so busy with improving the quality of our own personal lives or shuttling our exceptional kids to soccer (OK, replace "soccer" with the sport or activity of your choice) where they are.....you guessed it --- learning to: win at all costs. We do not investigate how such a lie can so deeply affect this world. Kill the opponent. Crucify the competition. While we exceptional parents learn to......empower ourselves. Increase science and math skills. We evolved from apes. Educate young minds. We evolved from apes. Extol the brightest lights -- ignore those who are shy, different, dark, troubled, broken, or merely bent, discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, the poor in spirit -- people like that should be kept out of sight -- too much maintenance. Natural selection. Move the Salvation Army out of our neighborhood -- it's an eyesore. Survival of the fittest. We evolved from apes. Those who merely 'try' but never win, shouldn't be rewarded for effort alone; only winners inspire; only winners should count. Survival of the fittest. Batter up! A-string. Honor Roll. Valedictorians. Who's who. Gold medals. Kill the competition. Survival of the fittest. Buy a gun. Be a celebrity. Survival of the fittest. Eliminate the eyesore. Extermination. Holocaust.

Remember OJ Simpson? Our entire culture is geared toward success, toward the exaltation of celebrity. Movie stars, rock stars, Academy Awards, MTV Music Awards, Heisman Trophies. World Cup. History loves and forgives a winner. Survival of the fittest. Heck, it would be easier to eradicate abortion in our country, than football. Kill the competition. But competitive sports extols and encourages winning above everything (and virtues like cheating, dishonesty, and fraud); just look over our marred Olympic history -- winning encourages the competitors to step on one another for gold medals. Survival of the fittest. It encourages athletes and officials to disregard morals, ethics, and health. Natural selection. Name a silver or bronze medallist? That's right -- few are remembered. It is the GOLD medal which counts. Survival of the fittest. 2nd place is meaningless. Remember Tanya Harding.... what could make an world class athlete stoop so low? Fear of NOT WINNING. We evolved from apes. Survival of the fittest.

Don't be seduced by what you see and hear. Investigate. "Under the constitution, every citizen has the right to bear arms; I deserve to protect myself..." and"shooting your neighbor (who's attempting to rape your sister, you think) is justified under certain circumstances" -- never mind about that vigilante thing. "Hey, God didn't mean what He said about 'thou shalt not kill,' He was only talking about abortion..."

For those of us who have read His book, we find that God indeed has assigned governments (yes, even bad ones) the job of judging and/or punishing crime, even executing death, when appropriate, when the crime demands it. He assigned them as His ordained representatives on earth. Good and bad. He did not, however, ordain that same judgement/power to be executed by civilians. God also commanded those who believe in Him to obey those governments he's appointed, good or bad, as He has appointed even the most wretched leaders for His own purposes ("Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God; what is God's."). And the God I believe in says that He "works all things together -- good and bad -- for the good of them that believe, who are the called, according to His purpose"...(Romans 8:28). HIS purpose; not ours. Not mine. Even though there will always be bad guys. He made them, too. Hey, did He not use Rameses The Great to glorify Himself through Moses? Did He not use Pontius Pilate, Herod, and a whole bunch of self-seeking Pharisees and Sadducees to glorify himself in His own death and subsequent resurrection? Maybe you didn't know there were over 50,000 eyewitnesses to that crucifixion. Maybe you didn't know that there were over 500 impartial witnesses to His resurrected body eating fish and drinking wine with the apostles. Maybe you didn't know that many of those accounts have been authenticated and can currently be obtained in libraries and even on the internet. Even on this website. Maybe you didn't know that the Bible is the single most attested to, most authenticated book in the whole of literature. Maybe you should just read His book.... I mean, really read it for yourself, not just believe what someone else has told you it says. Talk about your illogical act of faith -- believing what others have said about the Bible. Investigate. People make mistakes; people lie. God does not--He is immutable.

But don't even trust what I say. Read it for yourself.

P.S. God is not blind. Just because you've chosen to put your head in the theological sand, doesn't mean He doesn't know who you are. P.P.S. Contrary to popular myth, we did not evolve from apes. We were created. There is evidence. He has even foreknown you because He alone knit you together in your mother's womb. Me, too. He knew who we would be before the earth was created. Before the mountains; yes, even before Buddha. Sigh.

Now, as pertains to that school violence thing I was talking about, for those who truly don't believe in a divine, intelligent, Sovereign Creator, I just do not see any way out of the destruction which humanity will inevitably bring upon itself with the kind of reasoning which has been proffered to date. Our childen do not know who is making the rules. The rules appear to change with every situation.

Now ask yourself just exactly HOW is a society supposed to bring about world peace with weapons? That is like trying to fight fire with gasoline. Don't you know there will always being a faster gun in town, Bubba? Don't you know that there will always some cowboy looking to make a name for himself, looking to FEEL like he (or she) is the coolest, or just looking to right a wrong and fed up with waiting, or just looking for a little celebrity? Where is the sheriff? The world is in worse shape now than it was during the period of the wild, wild west because WE SHOULD KNOW BETTER, and we act like we do not. Our country's crime rate, alone, should be proof that we are de-evolving, not evolving.

The handwriting is on the proverbial wall.

No, I believe that the ONLY hope our children and our world truly has, rests not in the sheriff, but in a better class of hero, one who won't let us down -- an Almighty Creator who has already provided the one way out of this mess which we are evermore heaping upon ourselves. Only He can do it. We can change our minds, but only He can change hearts. And until our hearts change, the world is only gonna get worse. For even as that great democracy with the highest, most appalling crime rate on the planet, WE -- despite all our many freedoms -- CANNOT SEEM TO SAVE OURSELVES FROM OURSELVES.

What if we, instead, reversed our position on just the theory of evolution. What if we told our children that there is no actual supportable data proving graduated evolution. What if we told them how "Lucy's bones" was in reality an act of faith committed without factual supporting evidence, committed by desperate scientists attempting to justify their own narcissistic noumena.

What if we instead told our children that we were all made in the image of an Almighty Creator who loved us losers enough to die for us, and who was powerful enough to rise from the dead (check out the evidence for THAT) so that when we finally wake up and realize that despite all our guns and good intentions, we cannot save ourselves -- He alone has left us a way out. What if we insisted that those virtues of meekness, humility, lovingkindness, and patience should be prized above all others, and valued BEFORE success. What if we told them that while the world may love a winner, the lowly and the poor in spirit (losers) are God's people. What if we told them that while acts of kindness may appear to receive no immediate or outward rewards, the satisfaction of having acknowledged God may restore hope. What if we told our children to pray for others. What if we told them to pray for their enemies? What if WE prayed for our enemies? What if we insisted that without those virtues of meekness, humility, patience, longsuffering, kindness, selflessness, and self-sacrifice, life is truly meaningless. What if we were to tell them that loving one another as He has loved us was God's greatest commandment to us all, and that if a child could but fulfill that commandment, alone, he may be too busy to break the others. What if we were to tell them that with God's help, they -- we -- can live in a better way than we are currently living.

Consider the possibility that giving children what they want is never so great a gift as providing for them what they need.........
Our "self"oriented society is now fraught with individuals and families "doing things their way," each person claiming their American right to live his or her own way. But I fear that when man takes God from the center of the universe and puts himself there, he ceases to have anything in common with anyone else. This is not a game of King of the Hill. Tell them we cannot do any of this without His help. Tell them, before they start believing they are animals.