With trust, as children, we will believe what our elders tell us: that plant is poison, that snake is dangerous, gods make thunder… etc. They can provide the simple answers to life’s everyday questions and we take it on face value.

On the other hand, children are naturally curious little scientists; exploring, testing, experimenting and questioning to discover their world.

Me, I like mysteries and discovering the reasons behind them. Some will watch the magician’s tricks and be satisfied with the mystery. I want to know how they do the trick. (One of the best things to present an inquisitive young mind is a magic set or book.)

I am a firm believer in the practice of multiple working hypotheses. When presented with a puzzle I will entertain many possible solutions and find some comfort with the one that explains the puzzle the best. but if another solution comes along that is better, or new evidence is discovered that fits the evedence better, I’ll go with that one.

As far as weeping statues are concerned, my mind is going to look at the plumbing before it looks to the heavens. I just don’t understand the mind that stops at “God did it” or “It’s a mystery.” I find no comfort there.

Honestly, it worrys me that our culture is so unquestioning. People believe that a guy on the stage is talking to the dead or can see their future…and he makes big money fooling them with simple parlour tricks. If we are fooled by such things it is easier to fool us on other things.

It is curiosity and questioning that brought us to where we are today; from fire to the wheel to electricity to splitting the atom into its many parts. While I understand the desire for simple answers I feel sorry for those that don’t quiz this beautiful universe. And if we don’t teach our children to question the cosmos, we will slide back to a second darkness. And people are alot easier to control that way.

I saw a statement the other day that brought me a chuckle:

“The difference between a cult and a religion is that in a cult, someone at the top knows it’s a sham; in a religion that someone is dead.”

And a Church seeking to jail someone for showing the Truth about a weeping statue is Evil. Bottom line is that the weeping statue fills their collection box.

I love tolerance and you have always personified that alcaray.

I have to quell my inner “What you talkin’ ’bout Willis!!??”

That reassurance can take the form of God, the government, the free market, science, truth, a leader, the wisdom of the founding fathers, democracy, human dignity, the People, progress, Manifest Destiny, the Force, whatever. We all have this, even those of us have even recognized it for what it is: an evolutionary prewired circuit in our heads that keeps us functioning even when there is no longer any hope.

And even those who know that intellectually to be a lie can simply not grasp it emotionally. The only undeniable fact of existence is that we are all going to die, but deep down inside we refuse to accept it applies to us.

And we do not want anyone to tell us otherwise.