Category: Religion

The Moronic Statements of Pope Francis

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Religion1 Comment

Pope Francis has done some good since his reign, but last week he stepped into a pile of shit, and it will be hard to get the papal slippers clean again. When asked about the attack that killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo – targeted because it had printed depictions of the prophet Muhammad – he said:

One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith. There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity … in freedom of expression there are limits. If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.

This is from the head of the religion that burned people at the stake for heresy. Note: Heresy is SPEAKING about something that the church does not agree with.

This is from the head of the religion that imprisoned Galileo for the rest of his life because he found that the earth circles around the sun and wrote a book about it. The church didn’t like his speech and called it heresy in 1633:

       The sentence of the Inquisition was delivered on 22 June. It was in three essential parts:

  • Galileo was found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to “abjure, curse and detest” those opinions.
  • He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition. On the following day this was commuted to house arrest, which he remained under for the rest of his life.
  • His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

— Wikipedia

This is from the head of the religion that allowed systemic child-abuse for decades, all around the world.

The pope is really saying that offenders should expect a punch, not that it’s okay to punch. But that’s not how it will be interpreted. The offended will feel empowered by the pope: Ah, it’s okay for me to punch back because somebody said a curse word against my mother, or my prophet, or my god.

Based on what the pope just said, won’t the father of a child abused by clergy not therefore feel entitled to blow away the offending priest with a shotgun?

What is the bigger crime?

  • Molesting a child?
  • Or publishing a cartoon about the pope molesting a child?

According to what I am reading about the pope, he seems to think the second is a bigger crime.

I am sure he didn’t mean to do this, or I sure hope so, but his words here will be used by Muslims to justify hurting and killing people that speak out against their religion. He words will be used by Christians who are looking for justification for violence against others that speak out against them, be that from the homosexual community, the scientific community or from people supporting the right of women to have abortions.

Free speech can NEVER be limited – because if it is, it’s no longer free speech. That’s the whole point of it. Unfortunately, most humans around the world don’t have that right. We do have it in America, and in many European Countries, and in Australia, but we are in the minority. We have to protect this right, and it’s our duty to spread it to the rest of the world. With free speech, abominations like ISIS could not exist – at least usually not very long. Remember – Hitler stopped free speech, and lasted only 12 years.

Just when it looked like there might be a Catholic Spring, Pope Francis just blew it big time.

The Sphere of Influence of Our Gods

On By Norbert HauptIn Astronomy, ReligionLeave a comment

To look at how important we are, and how important our Bronze-Age and Medieval scriptures are in our world today, as we know it, check out this chart. It’s designed to view from bottom up. Scroll to the bottom of this picture and then scroll up to read it.

Scale of Universe

Visualizing Stars and Religions

On By Norbert HauptIn Astronomy, Religion, Visualizing1 Comment

Common wisdom says there are about 6,000 stars visible with the naked eye on earth. Of course, half of them are below the horizon. Of the 3,000 stars above the horizon, 500 of those too close to the edge, or obstructed.  That leaves about 2,500 visible stars on a clear, dark night.

There are 4,200 religions in the world.

That means that there are more religions in the world than there are stars you can see on a clear night.

L’Amour est Plus Fort Que la Haine

On By Norbert HauptIn Religion1 Comment

charliehebdoLove is stronger than hate. Twelve people working at this magazine died for saying this. Another twelve or more were seriously injured.

If you don’t buy into the sky fairy delusions of Islamist fundamentalists, they kill you.

Religious fundamentalists often don’t like the light of day of free speech, when open debate occurs and puts a spotlight on activities perpetrated in the name of their sky fairies.

They take it upon themselves to try, convict, sentence and execute others – whom they call infidels.

I have been annoyed by Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christians judging others, and trying to push their sky fairy tales on the rest of us. But I haven’t heard of anyone but Muslims beheading people on TV, or shooting them in the offices of cartoon editors, or killing children because they are going to school.

Islam must truly be a messed-up religion to keep causing this stuff to happen, over and over again.

We hear outrage from Muslims all over the world condemning these atrocities, distancing themselves from them. Sorry. I am not buying it. Why is it that their religion spawns such criminals?

Islam – the religion that causes death to those that don’t buy into it.

Great stuff to be proud of and teach your children!

Sen. Inhofe’s Folly

On By Norbert HauptIn Climate Change, Crack-Ups, Religion, ScienceLeave a comment

Voters just made it so Senator Inhofe will be the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe is one of the most vocal and devoted “climate deniers.” In 2012, he wrote a book titled The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.

Inhofe cited the Bible:

“Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.’ My point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

It is outrageous to me that we put a man like this into a position of immense power where he can jeopardize or wipe out the work of thousands, no millions of people who study climate science, who are responsible in their use of resources, who want to make sure that there is a world for our children to live comfortably in.

Quoting divine power or bronze-age scripture to make national (or international) policy regarding environmental responsibility is outrageous and we, the voters, should be outright ashamed for ourselves for allowing this to happen.

Inhofe belongs in a church, where he can spew drivel all day long to eager followers without really doing any damage.

I am worried now. But maybe I shouldn’t be worried. After all, God’s going to fix it, right?

Religious and Monarchical Oppression

On By Norbert HauptIn Feelings, Political, ReligionLeave a comment

It has always angered me when others tried to impose their religious views or rites on me.

I grew up in a predominantly Catholic environment, and Catholics frown on people eating meat on Fridays. Fish is okay, I guess, some 2000 year old loophole was created that eventually become policy. Some say fowl in also “fish” in this context, because it floats on water. This alone shows how ludicrous such “rules” are. Anyway, in my youth I was often frowned upon for eating meat on Friday. This is a really benign example, of course, of this need by many religions to oppress others that are not part of their own delusions.

One of the more dangerous examples is the Taliban and, more recently, the ISIS lunatics. Taking away the education of women and girls, making them live covered up head to toe, and oppressing their sexuality and individuality is a more dangerous manifestation. When these rules are forced upon hapless brainwashed girls of their own communities, it is one thing. They actually don’t know any better, and I am not one to argue what really goes on in their heads. But if they conquer others of other religions or non-believers, and automatically interpret that raping an infidel girl is okay because he is already soiled, it has very serious implications.

No society should tolerate religious oppression from anyone.

Then there is oppression by the monarchy of many countries.

For instance, there was an infamous picture of President Obama bowing the Japanese emperor which I wrote about here and a bow to the Saudi King that I wrote about here.

Apparently Obama likes to bow, and it bothers me to no end. Obama should not be bowing to anyone. He is my head of state, and I want to be proud of him. I cannot be proud of my President when he bows to inbred despots, who inherited their positions, who have lived off the public teat for centuries, not done anything for the world or their own people, other than sucking them dry, and in some cases killing them by the millions.

Another example: etiquette requires that mere mortals do not touch the Queen of England. Ok, that may be a rule that affects the subjects of said queen, but I certainly am not such a subject. I had the luxury and incredible luck of being born free, of not being born a British citizen, and therefore I should not be expected to kowtow to the queen. Of course, there is no chance of me ever getting into a position of having to make a decision to that effect, so it’s easy to talk.

Winston Churchill certainly didn’t buy into the foreign monarch rules:

While visiting the King Saud of Saudi Arabia, Churchill was informed he could neither smoke nor drink, for religious reasons, during a banquet thrown in his honor. That wasn’t going to work for Churchill. He informed the monarch that, “My religion prescribed as an absolute sacred ritual smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and the intervals between them.”

The Saudi king had to deal with that. My respect for Churchill just went up.

Does God Love Americans More than Africans?

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Misleading Statistics, Religion, ScienceLeave a comment

I believe in the power of prayer because I know so many people all over the world have been praying for me. I join you in prayer now for the recovery of others.

— Nina Pham, American Nurse and Ebola Survivor

So God saved three American healthcare workers from Ebola. I wonder why he chose to let 10,000 deeply religious and hard-praying Africans die?

Is it because we’re not praying for the anonymous Africans since we don’t know them and their names are not all over the news?

Might it be because Americans have lots of money that can buy very expensive medicine that Africans can’t afford?

Christian Love: Deuteronomy 13: 6 – 10

On By Norbert HauptIn ReligionLeave a comment

6  If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or y the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known,

7  some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,

8  you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.

9  But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.

10  You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

 

Guest Post: On Radical Islam

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Political, Religion5 Comments

Here is a comment from one of my readers about my musings on radial Islam. I made only minor edits for grammar and typing.

So disappointed. I look forward to your blog entries. I like your relatively clear thinking. Most of the time critical thinking. However, your head seems to be firmly under ground regarding radical Islam. Whether it’s a national cult or a religious one, when the perpetrators are saying they want to kill you, then kill you, then continue to kill you…kinda clear to me. Your metaphor about a squealing bunch of kids is nice, but oh so naïve. When bullies in your neighborhood start shooting at you with guns they stole from you, do you call them crazy zealots and wish them away?. Do you admit you made a mistake leaving them out in the yard, then, bow your head out of guilt or shame and let them hack away? Probably not.

Dudes that are Islamic, Japanese, German, American of whatever religious, nationalistic, or other death cults that creates victims then kills them, and promises to continue the butchery both within and outside their “neighborhood”
are probably not groovy. If the nihilistic ideologies of the last 100 years aren’t clear, well gee.

I’m sure a number of private corporations during WWII made big bucks. You know what, critical thinking tells me that survival under Obama-Halliburton is superior thank you to Hitler-whomever or Russia-whomever or even al-qaeda-whomever.

War was declared by radical Islam well before 9-11. History is very clear to illustrate when countries and their leaders make mistakes. The U.S. is well chronicled in this area. However, history is also very clear that when a war cult says they will kill you, then enters your country and terminates how ever many thousands of people died in those towers and might have died in D.C.only apathy, weariness, or blind ideology says oops we made some mistakes, please your just crazy religious zealots, go back home, wreak havoc in your own country and don’t come back.

Now, the psychologist in me notices that CNN appears to be a brain bashing despot. packaging and repackaging various horrors over and over. Turn CNN off, do the difficult work of resourcing the best info and commentators out there and live your life. And be thankful that for the moment most of us are spared the insults of tribal savagery most of the time.

By the way, self-serving ideologies abound in the middle east, Russia, Europe and the U.S. that are profoundly fail the tenets of critical thinking. In my opinion. Please be cautious when referencing commentators that support your political narrative. Some of them, Alastair Stephens comes to mine, have singular narratives that seldom deviate from their core ideology. In Stephens case, he is an untiring “worker” for one or more socialist parties both inside and outside Russia. Here is an example:

“The following statement of the Russian Socialist Movement is an example of how socialists oppose the imperial ambitions of their own ruling class – one the Left in Britain should emulate”-Alastair Stephens -March 4, 2014-Counterfire.org.

-Imperialism Today

“The present conflict brewing in the Ukraine is a product of inter-imperialist rivalries.
The US and the European powers have been pushing expansion of the Nato and EU into the former Eastern Bloc, and increasingly up to borders of Russia.
This is neither in the interests of the peoples of those countries, or ordinary people anywhere else. The consequences of previous “colour revolutions” have not been happy.
Furthermore successful imperialist intervention in Eastern Europe will only act to encourage such action elsewhere in the world, with the Middle East the top of that target list.”

I am quoting at length because this is the same language, the same logic, the same themes that were peddled on the streets of Berkeley in the early 70’s. I was as counterculture as they come, still I could recognize ideology not rational analysis. Apparently, not much has changed.

5000 Dead in Central African Republic

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political, ReligionLeave a comment

Central African Republic
by Krista Larson : AP [click for picture credit]
Since January, the AP found that at least 5,186 people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians, based on a count of bodies and numbers gathered from survivors, priests, imams and aid workers in more than 50 of the hardest-hit communities in this African country.

Did you see Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow talk about this on prime time TV in the United States?

Could you point out the Central African Republic on a map?

This is a country of 240,000 square miles. For comparison, California is 164,000 square miles. So Central African Republic is a little smaller than California and Arizona combined, or for my European readers, it’s a bit larger than Germany and the United Kingdom together. Yet, very few of us know where that country even is. It must be in Central Africa, duh.

Map of CAR

Christians and Muslims are slaughtering each other. Nobody seems to care. There is a token United Nations force there trying to stem the violence.

The United States media has given it very little attention. When Muslims slaughter Christians in Iraq, we somehow learn about it, but if it’s in Africa, don’t bother us. To give credit, however, I must add that the U.S. just now sent 20 people there to help open up the embassy again.

Of course, the Muslims in Africa are not terrorists plotting to blow up buildings in the United States, presumably, so they don’t rate.

Here is another example of why religion is poisonous to human life. These people, in their own vast country in the heart of Africa, with natural resources of diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil and hydropower, somehow choose to spend their energy on wars based on religious beliefs. As if those mattered.

The country should be spending its energies on attracting western capital to build up its resources, it needs leadership to run businesses harvesting those resources, it should invest in education for its children, build a workable infrastructure and join the international community, so the people of the world can point out their country on a map.

But their imams, priests and religious whatnots don’t seem to have that sense.

Why doesn’t Dick Cheney clamor for us to send “boots on the ground” to the Central African Republic? What’s the double standard here?

I am certainly not suggesting we do that, to get involved in a military conflict in a country that we don’t know, based on religions that we don’t understand, based on passions that we don’t care about.

So, why then, do we send American young men and women into Syria and Iraq?

 

 

 

 

This Happens When We Don’t Vaccinate

On By Norbert HauptIn Religion, Science3 Comments

Measles1
[click for credit: History of Vaccines]
According to the blog the History of Vaccines, there were millions of cases of measles in the United States until vaccines were introduced in the 1960s. The graph above shows this obviously. By 2000, the measles were all but eradicated in the United States.

Worldwide, measles and many other dangerous diseases, like small pox, have been eradicated and just about wiped out.

By science.

Then religious people in the United States arose and started objecting to having  their children vaccinated.  Our society is succumbing to this insane trend, and now diseases that were all but gone are on the rise again.

Look at what happened to measles:

Measles2
CDC Statistics

The year is not even over yet and we already have more than 600 cases in the United States.

 We have schools in California where the percent of children who exercise the personal belief exemption is well above 50%. That’s going to be a challenge for any disease that is vaccine preventable.

— LA Times – Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Infectious Diseases

Children don’t exercise this “exemption.” Parents do. And by doing it, they are killing their own children.

In the name of God.

 

 

Send Your Own Kids to Iraq!

On By Norbert HauptIn History, Political, Religion2 Comments

The news these days is full of pundits and saber rattlers who want the U.S. to go back to war in Iraq. The whole gang at Fox News, it seems, but also Senator Lindsey Graham and his cronies, are calling for war. Regardless of what former presidents did, it is not the job, or legal prerogative, of the president to declare war. The president has the authority to use military action if America’s safety is at risk, or American lives are under immediate threat. This is not the case here.

Why isn’t Congress cutting short its vacation, going back to Washington and engaging it the deliberative job it has, debating this issue and coming to the conclusion that it’s time to declare war – or not? Only Congress can declare war.

I am tired of listening to congressmen on TV spouting off about the president doing nothing. I want them to put their vote where their mouth is. I want them on the record. It’s easy to wage war from a comfy chair in the Senate.

I want them, and all the pundits asking for war, to send their own children and grandchildren to Iraq and Syria to do this noble job of defending the safety of America in the forsaken deserts of the Middle East. Let them take the first bullets shot by crazed, hypocritical zealots spewing medieval dogma, somehow protecting America.

Once their children are there, doing the shooting, they may just have a right to call up ours and send them there, too.

ISIS is a Product of U.S. Intervention

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political, ReligionLeave a comment

We indirectly created ISIS, just like we created the Taliban and the Khmer Rouge in years past.

In this powerful article, Alastair Stevens argues that ISIS, as it exists today, is the eventual development that resulted from U.S. intervention in Iraq. He compares this result to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, after that country became the unfortunate battleground between the superpowers when the U.S. meddled to thwart Soviet ambitions there. He also compares it to the rise of the Khmer Rouge after the Vietnam War. It is very eye-opening reading.

Stevens also argues that while the methods and the atrocities committed by ISIS are disgusting and criminal, their objective of a medieval caliphate is actually no different from what already exists in Saudi Arabia today, an evil country supported and propped up by the United States.

To make matters worse, we now face the threat of U.S. made weaponry in Iraq. This shows that in a powder-key like the Middle East, you can’t rely on your allies. Allies change as the political winds shift, but assault vehicles and weapons remain functional. According to Douglas Birch:

Never mind that the vehicle is a boxy, lumbering, second-hand set of wheels with a top speed of just 60 mph. To some of the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. M1117, aka the Guardian Armored Security Vehicle, has become their favorite ride.

The question now is: Does the U.S. once again think it can just fix the world in its own image by waging an insanely expensive and largely ineffectual bombing campaign? Have we not figured out that in the last 50 years we have tried our hands at nation-building we have not succeeded one single time?

Where is Kuwait in all this craziness? I remember when we liberated Kuwait in 1991 after Iraq had invaded them. I would have sworn at the time that Kuwait would be an undying ally of the United States, with open financial and political support, not to mention cheap oil for decades to come. When have you last heard anything from Kuwait? The Kuwaiti princes, little boys at the time in 1991, are now flying their private jets to New York and pay $20,000 for hookers, buy estates in Rancho Santa Fe and live happily ever after. They wisely keep a low profile and high prices of oil. Of course, the U.S. taxpayer made it all possible when we liberated their fathers and gave them their money back. Does Obama remember? He was a 30-year-old professor teaching law at the time.

Have we not learned that these “terrorists” that come out of the woodwork in Iraq are the boys that were ten years old when we killed their daddies in the quest to unseat Saddam Hussein? Don’t you think if some foreign superpower swept through the American mainland and killed all the men, the boys would not grow up to hate that superpower and then gladly join some noble movement in the name of God?

 

Scientists Tend to be Atheists

On By Norbert HauptIn Religion, Science1 Comment

One fact that concerns some Christians and elates some atheists is that 93 percent of the members of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the most elite scientific organizations in the United States, do not believe in God.

— www.catholic.com

Trent Horn, the author of this blog post, then tells us that he is not concerned:

First, the National Academy of Sciences represents a small number of scientists. The Academy itself comprises only about 2,000 members, while there are more than 2 million scientists employed in the United States as a whole. This means that the NAS only represents about one-tenth of one percent of all scientists in the nation. Using this statistic alone to prove scientists are overwhelmingly atheists would be inaccurate.

I guess Horn does not believe in sampling, either. He should probably check with some of our political pollsters who will argue that if the sample is random, results can be projected to larger populations quite accurately, within some margin of error. Ok, it might not be 93 percent of scientists in general who are atheists. Maybe it’s 89 percent, but maybe 97 percent. I don’t think the exact number matters. What matters that the gap between the general population is huge, and therefore it should give one pause to think.

Horn then asks whether atheism creates scientists or science causes atheism.

I have a hard time buying into the concept that how I feel about religion or how I don’t feel about religion somehow affects my interest in science, my ability to grasp scientific concepts or my passion to spend years of hard work in college becoming a scientist.

To be clear, I am not a scientist. But I know that to be a good scientist you have to be intelligent. I have taken courses in calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, physics, and statistics, all just basic prerequisites to even be allowed to take real science courses. I have a sense for what it takes to become a scientist.

So the statement scientists are intelligent is probably true most of the time. The statement scientists are atheists also appears to be true some 90 percent of the time (to be argued). From those two statements one cannot conclude that atheists are intelligent, or inversely that intelligent people are atheists. It only makes a statement about scientists.

I know some very intelligent people with who hold Ph.D. and M.D degrees who are religious. But in general, one could argue that people who deal with factual analysis of the real world tend to reject religion.

You might want to browse Catholic Answers for some interesting articles and interpretations. It’s a well-organized blog with good writing.

 

Movie Review: Heaven is for Real

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, ReligionLeave a comment

heaven-is-for-real-poster

Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) is a minister and preacher in a small rural town in Nebraska. Times a tough, and his income from a small salary provided by the church is not enough to make ends meet for him, his wife Sonja (Kelly Reilly) and his two small children, Colton (Connor Corum) and Cassie (Lane Styles). To supplement his income, he installs garage doors. Even that does not make enough of a difference, since his customers all too often don’t pay him in cash but in things like rolls of carpet in a rural barter system that just passes lack and need from neighbor to neighbor. The Burpos can’t pay the bills.

Then their four-year-old Colton suddenly gets very sick and he undergoes emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. Mixed with visions of the distraught parents in the waiting room and chapel of the hospital, we see the surgeons and nurses in the operating room responding frantically to the loss of blood pressure. “We’re losing him.” His mom calls a friend from church and asks her to call everyone to pray for Colton.

Presumably Colton recovers and the next thing we see is he is bouncing around healthy and happy. The prayers just have been successful in saving the little boy – or convincing God to keep him on Earth for a while longer.

Soon the parents notice Colton making strange statements and observation. He describes how he had an out-of-body experience and how he went on a short visit to heaven. There he had experiences that the parents can’t explain, and, of course, he met Jesus and sat on his lap.

The Burpos and the entire community around him try to come to grips with this “miracle” and things get difficult. Is Burpo just making all this up to get his 15 minutes on national TV?

There have been a number of “faith-based films” or “cinevangelism projects” lately, like Noah most recently. These movies generally “preach to the choir” – pun intended. Just like I enjoyed watching the HBO miniseries John Adams after I read the book of the same name by McCullough, since the film provided a vivid backdrop of costumes, architecture and  landscapes to the knowledge of history I had gained from reading the book, Christians may enjoy watching movies like Heaven is for Real to provide them with imagery and confirmation of their faith and beliefs.

The movie is filled with clichés one would expect in a movie about heaven. Angels appear as brightly lit humanoids with large wings. Scenes are filled with blue sky and bright clouds and ethereal music. Jesus is a Middle-Eastern-looking man with a tunic and a beard, but short hair and green and blue eyes, according to Colton. The entire movie keeps reinforcing those trite stereotypes we have all developed after reading too many books about the after-life and heaven over the years.

The acting is mostly wooden. Colton is a young boy, and I am sure it’s hard to get a young boy to act well and convincingly. His face, his language and his mannerisms never seem real. He is coached by a good director, and it shows in every scene. Kinnear does a good job portraying Todd Burpo.

There really isn’t any plot or good story. Like many “true stories,” this one just meanders around a basic idea, but in the end it just fizzles out. There is no resolution.

For the faith-based genre, however, I give the film some credit for not just being a white-washed commercial for Christianity. It does not proselytize. It shows that regular people in rural America have real problems, like paying the bills, making ends meet, finding a purpose and reason in life, and – yes – keeping a church and faith community going and growing. Heaven may be for real, but it’s not solving real-world problems. Faith alone does not do that, and the answers are not obvious.

Rating: * 1/2 (out of 4)