Save America
In the spirit of my last post, and the 9/11 5-year anniversary (yesterday), I wanted to point you all to a post by Luis Villa:
In the next five years, unlike the last five, I hope we use their memory to inspire us to actually make the US and the world safer for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, instead of making us less safe, or settling old scores. [more]
Perhaps it is a bit idealistic to hope for everything that he says, but I do believe that things can be much better than they are…
In a comment below, Chris mentioned God’s Debris, by Scott Adams. This is a book that I recommended to him, and I’ll recommend it now to everyone I know. It’s available as a free pdf download, so you really have no excuse not to check it out. It truly is a thought experiment, and even if you disagree with everything written, it should still open up some interesting discussions.
Anyway, without spoiling too much, one of the characters in the book talks about “levels” of the soul. Level 2 basically amounts to blind faith and complete self-assurance, and he asserts that most leaders fit into this category. My initial reaction with a laugh was that our dear president nearly defines this level, and he would love it if we would blindly follow him.
But it’s still generally true that this is a good level for leaders, as confidence tends to lend charisma — the more the better. Even if you’re wrong, it’s really about convincing other people that you know what you’re doing. And that will always frustrate people like me who aren’t so set in their beliefs, but would rather consider all options carefully and logically.
I guess I just need a leader who blindly believes in something that I can get behind… 
Hi again Josh: The book you talk about sounds interesting. I will see if I can check it out of the Library.
I just read a good one also—on a similar subject—that might interest you. Called “The Language of God”,it’s written by a Dr.Francis S.Collins who is one of the two genetists who headed up the dual efforts to define the human genome. He started his early life as an athiest, but always knew that somehow that didn’t fill his need for a spiritual connection. After much thought and study of the works of other great thinkers(C.S Lewis & others) he became an agnostic. He later came to believe in God, and became a Christian. His book isn’t evangelistic or out to convince anyone the right of his belief. He just talks about the science of genetics and the human genome,which he says is the language of God. He touches on evolution and other science disciplines, and how he changed eventually came to change his theological ideology. It isn’t a hard read, and I really think you might find it interesting.
Here”s another quote:ENSTEIN
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”