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After a period of late night assaults on the university campus, the local interfaith alliance decided to get involved. It was decided that they would investigate. A liberal minister visited the campus, and after a thorough search only one problem was identified. It was in fact one of the campus security phones that was not working. The liberal minister wrote a detailed report blaming the administration for failed priorities and numerous accusations of financial mismanagement and corruption and posted it at the kiosk. Unfortunately, soon after, there was another attack. The local interfaith alliance was concerned and embarrassed, so they sent their most conservative minister. After a thorough investigation, the conservative minister identified the same problem. The conservative minister ripped down the liberal minister’s report and threw it on the ground and replaced it with a simple to read sign that read: Out of Order. Unfortunately, there was yet another attack. Finally, at a loss for a solution, the local interfaith alliance sent the humanist minister. Relying on the wisdom of several millenniums of religious teachings and holy books from every faith and the most obscure prophets, the humanist minister searched for answers, and then came upon the broken phone with the out of order sign. The humanist minister looked down and read the words of the liberal minister and shook with disbelief. The humanist minister reached down picked up the now crumbled dissertation and decided to throw it away in a trash receptacle that had been conveniently placed nearby. The humanist minister pondered the replacement sign left by the conservative minister. Seeing that there was plenty of room to write on the sign left by the conservative minister, the humanist minister took out a black magic marker and meticulously crossed out the words that had been left by the conservative minister so that none of the message remained. Then with the left over clean space that remained the meditation began in earnest. Next a flash of insight miraculously came and on the remaining space the humanist minister wrote in large letters with a big smile: KEEP RUNNING! Everybody knows that college textbooks are routinely rewritten, edited and replaced. Furthermore, as any college student who has tried to sell their used books could tell you, earlier editions are nearly worthless. Of course the guys who write textbooks are biased and of course 18 year olds are wildly idealistic and biased too. Kearny should be proud of any youngster who has the courage to stand for factual integrity and truth, even if two years from now that truth is revealed to have been wrong or a mere superstition. I am proud of Matthew LaClair.

Hi Paul, You cannot get honest discussions because ultimately the issue is about the power of money and the ability to keep duping the public legally and profitably. Once they realize that a group or person can't be converted they have to demonize. Its like all the other political claptrap being promoted. People believe that the dems will end the occupations or that the reps will win the wars. As Ghandi said " an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind." There's a lot of that here. The objective is to keep the government looking stupid and expensive so that all manners of real ripoffs can occur. The same nastiness is on so many websites. Keep on keeping on! Your Friend, Gene

Hi Paul, Thanks for your kind words. The saddest truth is that victimization and martydom are proven sellers of religious extremism. There is no archeological evidence that proves Moses or his people were slaves in Egypt yet that story is used to incite. It is the undergirding of Christianity that god needed to experience the pain and death of his only child in order to be convinced that humankind was worthy of heavenly access. And of course there's the one about those virgins you get in heaven when you kill infidels. (I hope that this is true and that the virgins are 90 year old nuns.) Creationism does not rise to the level of theory. Good science always holds the possibility that a new discovery will prove or disprove an earlier theory. I have a peculiar notion that it might take something like making great Humanists like Reverend Ross Henry or Robert Tapp face lions at the Meadowlands in order to get the word out about the great ideas of humanism. Warmest regards to the LaClaire family, Gene

Hi Bryan, I am not inclined to be absolute in my thinking but I guess that any of the various versions of "The golden rule" would be the source of my ethical musings on slavery. As to the next question, I behave as if I have free will especially when the stakes seem low, and/or I have time to deliberate. I cannot exercise free will when reflexive action occurs. (I am thinking here about the hammer on the knee type of reflex.) Certain split second decisions may apply also. Warmest regards, Gene

If I were inclined to believe in an opinionated supreme being, I would view the fossil record as the more perfect "word of god" rather than the man-made, edited, politically motivated literature of the antique scriptures. Many of those words and ideas will go the way of slavery: a superstition that is an embarrassment we have inherited from ignorant ancestors. Any god that values human sacrifice through painful martyrdom is impotent and does not reflect humanistic values. I am inspired by the divine within unique individuals. Reverend Gene Queval Humanist Minister Hamilton, New Jersey "There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains. The most universal quality is diversity. " Michel Eyquem De Montaigne