an atheist who feels threatened in his beliefs...

Sometime the scariest thing is to read or hear something and let your mind just ponder the possibilities. An example of this is this morning I was reading an older Dilbert Blog entry where Scott Adams was talking about the movie Zeitgeist he watched on the Internet.

To quote Mr. Adams, the movie entwines three basic arguments:

1. The Bible is an obvious copy of earlier religions, designed to control the masses.

2. September 11th was staged by the U.S. government as a pretext for grabbing power and making money.

3. Rich bankers control the entire world.

I almost hate to admit this but I do buy into these statements, but with some background and caveats:

- Rich bankers control the world? Oh yeah, this is a stretch! Now way back in the 70's my line of work put me in contact with some very rich and powerful individuals in interesting ways. This one fellow in particular, who shall remain nameless, stood out more than others.

Let me attempt to set the scene of where this dude was coming from:
1. My entourage and myself stayed at his "guest" mansion in Palm Beach, as opposed to his mansions of residence in Palm Beach and Malibu;

2. Offspring of the Getty's, Vanderbilt's and the like 'slummed' it in the servant quarters of this place;

3. Some of his associates and drinking buddies went by names such as Kennedy, Johnson, Herriman and the like!

So one night he was bored I guess and came over to the "guest" mansion and broke out the good liquor and told me tales of power and events next to the water fountain in the study that would be considered back stories to major world news that put chills up my spine because it all sounded so plausible!

- The Bible stories based on earlier religious practices? Sure, why not! I believe the God needed to communicate with the early biblical era people in a manner they understood; and remember He also works in strange and mysterious ways. You have to also admit that part of the purpose of the Bible was to get an unruly mass of Bedouin society under control. I mean, He's God and he can do what ever he see fit to in order to get his message across! I'm just glad the messages are delivered more subtle manner these days than how it was delivered to Sodom and Gomorrah! With this in mind I very much buy into Mark Twain's' idea that God created man because he was disappointed in the monkeys!;

- and September 11th was staged by the U.S. government as a pretext for grabbing power, well DUH! I stand dumbfounded in how on earth the likes of Bin Laden and his homeys could have figured out all the details and timing to pull a thing like that off. Sounds so much like the Pearl Harbor revelations now coming to light, don't you think? Can it be proven if it is true? Not in today's world I'm afraid. As sorry as it may sound to some, sometimes hanging with the devil you know as opposed to the devil you don't know is more comforting in a very sorry way....