Larry Peterson's Blog, page 26

The Legend of the Jack-O-Lantern----(one version)

by Larry Peterson







Long ago in Ireland, the land of shamrocks, leprechauns, soft winds and smiles, there lived a man named Jack. Jack was quite lazy and did not like to work. But he had the gift of "blarney" and could talk the peat off the moss. He would tell wondrous tales about his adventures as a world traveler and the people in his village would be held spellbound by his golden tongue; however, Jack outsmarted himself when he  stole money from the townsfolk. He thought that they were not very smart and would never find out. But they did find out and began chasing him down the streets of the village.

As Jack ran down the road as fast as he could he rounded a bend and ran smack into the devil. The devil smiled at Jack and told him it was time for him to die and that he was there to take his soul. Jack quickly convinced the devil that if he would let him go and promise to never take his soul he would give him all the souls of the folks who were chasing him. "And how do you plan to do that, Jack?" the devil asked.

"Well now, all ye have ta do is turn ye-self into a pot of gold coins. Then I will give the coins to the people and you will be in all of their pockets. They will be yours."

Since many souls were better than only one, the devil readily agreed and turned himself into a pot of gold coins. Jack gave the coins to all the people and they went away smiling never realizing that they had given themselves to the devil in return for money.

So Jack lived on, grew old and, like all mortal men, finally died. His life had been so sinful on earth that he could not get into heaven and since the devil could not take his soul, he could not get into hell. He had nowhere to go. He asked the devil how he was supposed to see because he was in complete darkness. The devil laughed and tossed Jack a burning ember from the fires of hell, an ember that would never burn out.

Jack, using the ember to guide his way, found a pumpkin patch (some say it was turnips) and carved out a pumpkin. He put the ember inside and began carrying it around so he could see where he was going. To this day he wanders the earth seeking a resting place. And that is why he is known as "Jack-O'-Lantern" or "Jack of the Lantern".

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN"     posted in 2011 and 2012








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God and Freedom of Religion--Nothing but an Oxymoron

by Larry Peterson



Florida has this peculiar demon called the 'sandspur'. It is a barbed, pointy thing that is attached to a certain type of grass that sticks to your socks, shoes, shoelaces, and, if you happen to be barefoot, your feet. When they do become impaled in your feet they hurt--a LOT. When you try to pull them from your feet or pick them from your socks and/or shoelaces,  they get stuck in your fingertips. (The trick is to always wet your fingers first.) Here's the thing. I never intentionally invaded their territory. It was an accident. They were here before I was. Therefore, I do my best to avoid them. I have made no attempt to eradicate them because that would be impossible. They are here to stay--end of story.



It seems that several months ago the  Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit in U.S. District Court in NY to have the name of God removed from United States currency where it is imprinted with "In God We Trust". These people are atheists who call themselves "nontheists"  because the word 'atheist' is too offensive to most folks. Anyway, they say that using the motto "In God We Trust" is "problematic" because it violates the  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I maintain that they do not know what they are talking about and neither do all the judges, school administrators, parents, and whoever else complains about using the name of GOD because it violates the Constitution. That is absolute hogwash and I can explain why very simply. God has nothing to do with Freedom of Religion. Nothing at all. It just seems that all of us "Theists" (we are the people who believe in God and number in the countless millions), have become the sandspurs in the heads of the 'nontheists' and they cannot stand the pain and, try as they may, cannot seem to weed us no less eradicate us. For crying out loud, why do they even want to get rid of what we believe if they do not believe it to begin with?



This is the First amendment, word for word:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."  I ask you, what is religion? Is it not the manner in which we choose to worship God? God is NOT religion. The Founding Fathers accepted the existence of God as a 'matter of fact'. They just wanted to make sure all the citizens of the new nation would have the CHOICE of worshiping Him anyway they chose. Remember, many folks came here from Europe to escape religious persecution, ie; the Pilgrims, the Puritans, Quakers, French Huguenots and Mennonites (Anabaptists) to name a few. If someone claimed to be a "nontheist" back in the 17th or 18th century and tried to get the name of God eradicated they would have either been burned at the stake or hanged.



Here is a quote from George Washington, the Father of our Country, from a speech he gave to the Constitutional Convention delegates prior to ratifying the constitution:  "If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards, defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of GOD."



There you have it. Before the Founders even started their work the First President told them that ,"the event is in the hand of God." They knew there was a God. They accepted that as fact. They also knew that people had many different ways of honoring and worshiping Him. That is the right they wanted to protect. They NEVER considered for a moment that the name of GOD would violate the First Amendment. To me the entire concept is an oxymoron. Without God you can have no Freedom of Religion. Why would you need it?



So, to all you 'nontheists' (aka atheists) out there who cannot seem to get we Theistic, God believing sandspurs out of your heads, too bad. You invaded our world. Why don't you relax and enjoy the rights afforded you. Why do you even care if we choose to believe in God? What is it to you?  You don't believe he even exists and yet you fight to get rid of Him. You have a problem.

Remembering Angelo Roncalli aka Pope John XXIII

When Angelo Roncalli entered the Sistine Chapel with the other Cardinals in 1958 the last thing he ever expected was to leave that place as the new pope.  He was 77 years old. He was not well known, avoided the llimelight as much as possible and, even though a cardinal, was more famous for being "ordinary" than anything else. When  he was elected on the eleventh ballot he knew that his brother Cardinals were basically looking for a Papal 'caretaker' for several years. Taking the name John, after his dad, Pope John XXIII surprised not only them but the entire world.





The new Pope had a quick sense of humor, an affable smile and his chubby presence was a beautiful thing. The world came to love him quickly and he was so respected by world leaders that he was deeply involved in the efforts to resolve the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. No one on the planet considered Pope John XXIII   'ordinary' any more.




Pope John is best known of course for calling the historic, Second Vatican Council together. On October 11, 1962,  all the bishops from around the world convened and Vatican II was underway. The Pope set the tone for the council when, in his opening speech, he said, "The Church has always opposed...errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity."




The "old man" recognized that mercy had to be an intricate part of the reformed Catholic equation. The world was shrinking with advanced communications, commercial jet travel and televisions in millions of homes. Naturally, there were members of the council who thought that the Church was abdicating its sanctity by allowing certain changes. Foremost was  replacing the Tridentine Mass of Pope St. Pius V with the Novus Ordo Mass where the language went from Latin to the vernacular. Suddenly allowing lay persons to distribute Holy Communion horrified many but was also welcomed by many. The early church allowed receiving Communion in the hand and this was now once again allowed. Others thought the church needed to be more progressive  and ordain women as priests and allow priests to marry. The simple man from Lombardy held their feet to the fire. None of the changes implemented were  "uncatholic". They simply allowed the people, especially women,  to be able to participate more fully in the life of the Church.




Pope John XXIII was  a stretcher bearer in the Italian Army during World War I. During World war II, when he was still Archbishop Roncalli, he helped save over 24,000 Jewish people. He wrote the great encyclical, 'Pacem in Terris', which means, 'Peace on Earth'. In this encyclical he wrote, "That every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life..."




Today is Blessed John XXIII's feast day. He will be canonized along with Blessed John Paul II in April of 2014. I was blessed to have lived during the papacy of each of these great men.  




Pope John XXIII 













                                                                                       

Frank Bernardone (aka St. Francis of Assisi) Would They 'Baker Act" Him in 2013?

On October 4th, we Catholics celebrated the feast day of the great St. Francis of Assisi.  Pope Francis, during his homily at the Mass, encapsulated his namesake with this one brief sentence; "In all of Francis' life, love for the poor and the imitation of Christ in his poverty were inseparably united, like the two sides of a coin." 





The  Catholic Church has a rich and fabulous history of people who have been elevated to the rank of Canonized Saint. Some are still in stage two of the three stage process to sainthood and are called 'Blessed' (reaching the first stage in the process a person is called 'Venerable'). No matter, these are our Catholic 'Hall of Famers' and among them are some who are so well known that  their names are recognizable by most people even after  two thousand years. St. Francis of Assisi is one of those 'Hall of Famers' and he lived about 850 years ago.



I am a cradle Catholic  and I went to Catholic school from grades one through twelve. I learned about many saints and martyrs and it always seemed to me that what we were taught placed these folks in a heavenly world more so than in a real, earthly world. As a kid, I never understood how the martyrs were willingly and happily dying for Jesus. Weren't they scared? Did some of them possibly cry? Were they so filled with the Spirit that they were always stoic and reserved accepting their horrible fate with  joy while thanking God for the honor of a martyr's death? Fear is a normal emotion. Courage is when you stare it down and confront it regardless of the consequences even unto giving up your life.  Filled with a faith that was unshakable they loved God and their fellow man so much  that their courage knew no bounds even as they faced death. These were people of valor filled with grace, honor, fortitude and foremost, love.




My namesake and one of my favorite saints is St. Lawrence. Legend has it that he  was roasted alive by the Emperor Valerian in August of 258 A.D. The story is that Lawrence, having been tortured for a period of time over hot coals said to his executioners,"I believe I am done on this side, please turn me over."  I do not believe that really happened but it goes to my point of being taught about the saints being "happy"  even as they endured the most horrible tortures. Anyway, I try to take my supernal heroes and bring them  into my world of the 21st century. Then I imagine them doing their thing in the zero tolerant, politically correct, secularist world that we living, wannabe saints exist in. How do you think St. Francis of Assisi would have fared in the year 2013?




Peter Bernardone, a wealthy silk merchant from Assisi, and his wife Pica, also from a wealthy family, gave birth to a son in 1181. They named him Johnny but later his father changed his name to Francis because he loved France, a country where he had made a lot of money (maybe dad had his own issues). Anyway, Frank grew up as a wealthy kid and had everything money could buy. He was handsome, courteous and dashing. Frank went off to war in 1204 and had a dream directing him to go back to Assisi. He did return and for some reason lost all desire for the worldly life. He joined a pilgrimage to Rome and joined with the poor who would beg in St. Peter's Square. The experience moved him to want a life of poverty. Back home in  Assisi he began preaching in the streets and soon he had a following.




St. Francis of Assisi dedicated his own life to the poor and to Christ in poverty. He founded the Franciscan Order and the Order of Poor Clares. In 1224 he received the Stigmata, which are the wounds that Christ received when He was crucified. This is not folklore or rumor or an "old wives tale". The Stigmata has been documented and St. Francis did have it. In addition, the man was known for his love of animals, and many of the statues erected in his honor have a bird sitting on his extended finger and maybe a squirrel at his feet. 




So how would Frank Bernardone have fared in 2013 America? What would have happened if he decided to throw off his expensive clothing and don some old clothes he got from a thrift store? What if he wore those clothes to Main Street and started preaching on the corner? What if he had tried to preach that way in front of  a church? What if he went and knocked on the door of the nearest Catholic rectory and asked for some food? The priest probably would have given him a number to the parish 'outreach' or maybe St. Vincent de Paul Conference, wished him well and closed the door. Then Frank would have had to find a phone to use and maybe he would have found one and maybe not. Sooner or later he would definitely have been spotted by the cops who would want to see ID and find out what he was doing and where he lived. They probably would have called his father. 




Eight hundred years ago in Assisi, Frank's dad was so infuriated at his son's behavior that when Frank came home from Rome, his dad beat him and locked him in the basement for a year. In 2013 Frank's father could not legally  beat his son and lock him in the basement. So he might have asked the cops to 'Baker Act" his grown son. If you do not know what  "Baker Act" means, it is simple. In Florida there is a law that allows the police or family or most anyone to have someone who is acting "irrational', and could be a danger to themselves or others, to be taken into custody and placed in lock down for 72 hours so they can be evaluated. The person has no say in the matter. Then it is up to the courts. If Frank told a modern day judge that he would rather live with the poor and beg for food even though he did not have to that judge may have put him in the 'booby-hatch' for a lot longer than 72 hours. 




Let me, as they say, "cut to the chase'".  Francis of Assisi was a spiritual man who loved Christ and loved the poor. He gave up everything worldly to serve the poor. He asked for nothing and eventually thousands followed him as Franciscan priests, friars, brothers and missionaries. The Order of Poor Clares came into existence because of Francis. Francis of Assisi changed the world through the love of the poor and the love of Christ in poverty. 




I cannot imagine how a man like Francis would do his thing today.  But, all things are possible with God, even in the pompous, secularist, meistic world of 2013. Just take a look at who suddenly became our Pope. A simple Argentinian named Jorge Bergoglio  was elected and he took the name of Francis, a simple man from Assisi.              

Saints Jeanie, Fred, Vinnie --- Our Catholic Christian Families Must All Stand Together

When Jeanie Jugon began working in the hospital in Saint-Servan she was 25 years old. She hated poverty and all it wrought and she wanted desperately to fight back against it. One bitterly cold winter night in 1839, Jeanie looked out from her bedroom window and saw a person huddled outside. She went out and  somehow managed to carry the freezing woman into her own home and place her in her own bed. The woman was blind, paralyzed and quite old. And so it began, for on that very night Jeanne Jugan turned her life to serving God by caring for the elderly poor.



Word spread quickly throughout the small town and before long more elderly sick and poor were being brought to Jeanie. Other women, younger and healthier, were coming to her also. But they were coming to join her in her work. The small group of women grew and became known as the Little Sisters of the Poor.  Forty years later there were over 2400 Little Sisters of the Poor in nine countries. 1879 was also the year that Pope Leo XIII approved the by-laws of the order. That  was the same year Jeanie Jugon died at the age of 86. She was canonized a saint on October 11, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.



Saint Jeanne Jugon never knew that when she was founding the Little Sisters of the Poor a young man hundreds of miles away in Paris was unknowingly doing something quite similar. Fred Ozanam was a 20 year old student at the University of Paris and, challenged by his "enlightened" college peers, embraced their taunts "to practice what you preach".  So he went out and gave his coat to a beggar.  Then he and his four pals founded the St. Vincent de Paul Society. That was in May of 1833.  The society was  named after St.Vinnie because he was known for his work with the poor.



 Vincent de Paul never knew that 170 years after his death an organization named after him would take up the mantel of helping the poor all over the world. Fred Ozanam died at the age of 40 and was beatified and declared 'Blessed' by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Fred would never know that the organization he  had founded  would one day work side by side with the Little Sisters of the Poor in their mission of charity toward the elderly poor. Saint Jeanie could never have known that from the moment she carried her first old, sick woman into her home she would change the world for thousands upon thousands of the sick and disabled elderly. She could never have imagined that in the 21st century her order would be serving the poorest of the  elderly in cities all over the United States and in 31 countries around the world. Blessed Fred would never have imagined that his St.Vincent de Paul Society would become a worldwide organization with 3/4 of a million members helping the needy all over the world. The grand irony is that over the course of several centuries the paths of these three saints have been interwoven dramatically as their followers help the poor, homeless and downtrodden no matter where they may be.



The three saints mentioned here never knew what their simple acts of kindness would lead to. The difference with them was that, unlike most folks, they responded to God's grace. Jeanie took care of that sickly woman and Fred gave away his coat. Vinnie worked with poor tenant farmers and founded the Daughter's of Charity. The two things they all had in common was a) they welcomed God's grace and followed His call and b) they asked for NOTHING for themselves and embraced poverty. Remarkably, their thousands and thousands of followers, separated by centuries, work together to this day. This is a beautiful thing.



 Using the names of saints as I have done here bothers some folks. I really do not care about that.  My brother's name is Daniel but I call him Danny. As far as Jeanie, Fred and Vinnie go, they are my family too.  You see, I love all of these people and using their names like that makes me feel closer to them. They set examples for us that we supposed to emulate. They are our Catholic heroes and therefore  members of our Catholic Hall of Fame. They asked for nothing and gave everything. I love being able to talk to them. What I love best is when they talk back. And they do, sooner or later and one way or another.



We must remember to pray hard for The Little Sisters of the Poor as they stand their ground against the HHS mandate that threatens their very existence. The forces of secularism are hard at work to remove religion from our lives. All our family members, including Vinnie, Jeanie and Fred, need  to stand together defending each other against this enemy.



St. Vincent de Paul, St. Jeanne Jugon and Blessed Frederick Ozanam, please pray for us.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" (for kids too) The Constitution is 226 Years Old Today''

The following is a Primer on the basics of the United States Constitution. There is much more detailed and insightful information available on-line and in libraries and text-books. I am posting this  primarily for young people so  they might get an overview of where the laws in America come from.



226 years ago today The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified. Congress has declared this day, CONSTITUTION DAY and the period form September 17 thru September 23 of each year as CONSTITUTION WEEK.  Below is the Preamble to this magnificent document:



We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America".



The Constitution, was  signed in 1787 and had VII (7) Articles with Articles I thru IV  having different Sections that stipulated certain laws. For example; Article I has ten (10) Sections. Section 1 states that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.  The other nine (9) Sections define other laws. Articles V thru VII have no Sections as they are straight forward as written.



The Bill of Rights are the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution. They were proposed in August of 1789, adopted on September 25, 1789 and went into effect on December 15, 1789.

Since then an additional 17 Amendments have been added, the last one on May 7, 1992. The 18th Amendment, also known as the Volstead Act, prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol and was ratified in 1919. The period of time in our history was known as "Prohibition". This amendment was repealed  in 1933 when the 21st Amendment was passed, overturning it.



 Article I; Section 8 of The Constitution  is known as the "elastic clause". This Section spells out the powers of Congress. It might be the most important clause in the Constitution as it gives Congress broad power to enact laws that might usurp the freedoms given the people. This is why it is so important for citizens to stay informed and vote for people they feel represent the freedoms spelled out in the Constitution. 



Here are quotes from two of the signers of this document:

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".  John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States



"The adoption of the Constitution will demonstrate as visibly the finger of Providence as any possible event in the course of human affairs can ever designate it."  George Washington



Every citizen should read through the Constitution. It is a magnificent document created by magnificent minds who trusted in  a Divine Craftsman to oversee their work. The Father of our Country, George Washington, confirmed that belief. The Constitution has changed over the 226 years of its existence with the abolition of slavery, giving citizenship to all people regardless of race, giving equal rights to women, and so forth. It was never perfect but it was flexible enough where, as society changed,  wrongs could be addressed and corrected. We will always have room for improvement. 



We should never lose respect or disrespect this document for its intended purpose was foremost ,'For the People'. It is NOT for those we  entrust the power to, to do what is politically expedient for them. Those empowered by the people have a sacred trust to do what is best for their constituents. It reads, "WE the people', not "Me, your President, senator or congressman."

As Satan Laughs, What Price Freedom? by Larry Peterson

Twelve years ago on this very day, Sept 10, America was doing its thing and being American. It was a Monday and a new week had begun and people were scurrying about going to work and getting the kids ready for the new school year. The NFL season had begun, the baseball season was winding down and the summer was almost over. We were Americans, living in the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave".



So Monday came and went, just another Monday. Then  along came Tuesday. As an unsuspecting and somewhat naive populace headed into the second day of the work week, Satan watched and salivated.  He knew that his hate-filled messengers were about  to do his bidding and  within a few scant moments would change "One Nation Under God" forever.



As the planes were hijacked he started to laugh, a deep disgusting guttural laugh that can only be imagined. Then Tower #1 was hit and the sound of the explosion did not just come from the disintegrating, fuel filled jetliner. No, mixed into the sound of exploding fuel and metal and rubber and glass and vaporized people was  also the sound of Satan's gleeful version of a High C blasting from the bell of a Selmer trumpet. Satan rejoiced and screamed with devilish glee. "One Nation Under God" was now under attack. When the attack was over almost 3000 innocent men, women and children were dead and millions of lives had been changed forever.



We can never go back to Monday, September 10, 2001. We can never go back to not having a Department of Homeland Security or needing one. We cannot turn back to a day when we are not violated  by scanners and "pat downs" by strangers at airports and at stadiums and theaters and varied other places. We can never go back to being as free as we were on September 10, 2001. Under the guise of safety and protection we have willingly submitted  to allowing our freedoms to be diminished.



The War on Terror has captured us and in many cases we are now its prisoners.   The next time you have to remove your shoes at the airport think back to September 10, 2001. Listen and  hear the roar of Satan's shrill laughter mixed among the crumbling steel and concrete of the majestic Twin Towers as it falls into history. Then ask yourself, "what price freedom"? Maybe the time has come to keep our shoes on.



                                                             

50 Years Ago He Had a Dream--Is It Becoming a Nightmare?

Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his now famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington D.C. A quarter of a million people stood and listened. Here are  a few excerpts:




"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today."



 "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence."


"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!


Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"



Of course these are only several out of context remarks from that great speech. And it WAS a great speech. I dare say over the last fifty years we had come a long way in seeing Dr. King's dream of  joined  hands between white and black people actually materialize. The Alabama mentioned in the speech is long gone.  Governor George Wallace and his famous "Segregation now, Segregation Forever" inaugaral speech from January, 1963 seems almost surreal. We had come a long way. Barack Obama is the President. We have had and have  black Supreme Court Justices. We have had a black man as Secretary of State and we have one as Attorney General.  At present there are 43 African-Americans serving as congressmen and women and two as United States Senators.



We had come a long way  and then, on February 26, 2012,  a 17-year-old by the name of  Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida by a neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman. From "we HAVE come a long way" changed to "we HAD come a long way". The race baiters pounced. Time to fan the flames of intolerance and hatred and spit in the face of everything Martin Luther King stood for. Even our own President of the United States dipped  into the trough of animus and racism helping to divide a country that  before Trayvon's death had actually come together more so than anytime in our history. It was far from perfect but it was so much better. How sad to see all of that progress cast to the wind.



Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King on this anniversary is a fine thing. But the people on the podium should not be using this man as camouflage for an agenda that flies in the face of everything he stood for. This can be a time to bring people together, to tamp out the flames of hatred, and to honor the progress we have made in race relations. There will  always be the narrow minded, black and white, who harbor mindless and insensible prejudice based on skin color. It is not a perfect world.  In his honor it is time to heal and spread the words once more of Martin Luther King, "“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” His dream should not turn into a nightmare.

Absurd Headline: Atheists tend to be more Intelligent than Religious People

Comedian Bill Maher said, "I think religion is a neurological disorder." Christopher Hitchins said, "the person who is certain and claims divine warranty for his certainty belongs now to the infancy of the species.' And of course, Frederick Nietzsche, the consummate atheist says, "In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."  Oh yeah, he also said, "God is dead." WHEW!!




I guess these famous atheists (actually, Bill Maher says he believes in God--not religion) have been validated because the U.K. online paper, "The Mail Online", bellowed a headline that began with the following, "Atheists tend to be more intelligent than religious people" (according to a U.S. study done at the University of Rochester). Researchers found that those with high IQs had greater self-control and were able to do more for themselves. They also have better self-esteem and build more supportive relationships."



Look, I am just a blue-collar guy and sparring with this cerebral, high-browed, intellectual stuff is a bit intimidating for me. But PUH-LEASE. How did they ever come up with such "facts"? As far as IQ tests are concerned I know some folks that, based on IQ scores, have brilliant minds sans much commons sense. Some of them seem to have a bit of a problem as they navigate the pathways of life itself. My hybrid observations have shown me that those folks are easily offended and, as a defense mechanism,mask their true feelings and become downright obnoxious when all they really want is to be like everyone else. As for myself, I hated taking IQ tests and received lousy scores which explains my simple perception of the geniuses around me.



I hate to disagree with these uppity University findings but it seems to me that many of those who believe in God and  a religion to worship Him have no problem with self-esteem even though the findings show differently. Hey, University of Rochester folks--did you factor in humility? Yeah--religion can instill  a sense of humility in people which would negate the self-pomposity caused by pride and not be self-esteem at all. Did you ever hear of the word Ego? These findings need to be re-evaluated immediately.



We live in a seemingly secular world. The combined media of print, broadcast, cyber, and instantaneous, promotes self-gratification, self-indulgence and swats away like a pesky fly the idea of self-control and self-denial. We are in the Age of Relativism. If it "feels good" it is okay. I say that is nonsense. I say that there are  millions and millions of people, all over the world who believe in God or a Divine Entity they might call a different name. I say that most of these people worship God guided by some kind of religion. The pseudo intellectuals who are "intelligent" enough to have rationalized away the existence of a Creator have waltzed themselves right into a barren field empty of Hope. They have used their smarts to outsmart themselves. It is actually sad. At this point in time they seem to be getting their way with the anti-God, no-God propaganda but their narrative has been built on sand and will fail. That is what I  call "natural selection" when God is in the equation.



As a Catholic man I shall ask God to give them the necessary grace so they might take an objective look at the perfection in the natural world around them. A rising  sun every 24 hours, not 23 or 25. The change in seasons, the new birth of a springtime, day and night, sunshine and moonshine, baby ducks following their mom.



The most sophisticated iPhone did not build itself. The folks who did were able to do so only because of the perfection in the world around them. Without that perfection we could not have the certainty of mathematics or the laws of physics. That iPhone could never have been. As for me, I choose  to admire with awe those baby ducks.

On the anniversary of his martyrdom we remember St. Maximilian Kolbe

 On this date in 1941, Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest and a prisoner of the Nazi's incarcerated at the Auschwitz death camp, traded his life to save the life a man who had a family. They starved him for ten days and then finished him off with an injection of carbolic acid. He was 47 years old. He was canonized a saint on Oct 10, 1982 by JPII and is the patron of drug addicts and the imprisoned. The man he saved was reunited with his family after the war and was present at St. Maximilian's canonization. St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.





St. Maximilian Kolbe