JS sees things through a different lens:
This war we’re in was sparked by religious differences (I’m still waiting for someone to tell me the difference between Osama Bin Laden invoking God and George Bush invoking God).
Christians have been waiting for the End Times since the first century and I’m sure every generation has seen signs that told them it was near. This generation is no different. I’m sure the world won’t end until the sun becomes a red giant about four billion years from now.
As far as Israel and 1948. Mark my words that nothing will come of it. The years will pass and the Christians will keep redefining the length of a generation and you and I will grow old and die as will our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on until the sun exhausts itself (see above paragragh). And there will be no rapture or return of Christ. Israel will continue to exist…or it won’t.
As far as hatred toward Christians. I was once a born again Christian 25 years ago. That lasted less than a year as I hung out with the most bigoted, fascist, self-righteous, judgemental, hypocritical anti-science group of people I’ve ever known.
I still have some Christian friends (and family members) and let me tell you, nothing has changed. I’ve been called Satan simply because I’m an evolutionist, a deist, and a reader of Wayne W. Dyer books. I do believe in God, just not a theistic one that has to re-engineer his plans to save mankind because his first idea didn’t work. Or has to step out of eternity and use supernatural intervention to create life and do whatever else he needs to so the universe will work right.
I am absolutely certain that in time (maybe thousands of years), Yahweh and Allah will go the way of Odin and Zeus. And science will answer all our questions concerning the physical universe.
Don’t cut yourself short. You are a genius, maybe even a super-genius. Without a doubt you’re smarter and far, far better educated than me, and I too have an IQ that would put me in Mensa if I cared about such nonsense.
It is always a mistake to judge the ism for the ist. It is tempting to do so, and most of us – including me – give into the temptation, but it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Did the fundamental truth of the labor theory of value really rest on the existence of a Soviet Marxist’s private Black Sea dacha in the Worker’s Paradise? Does the historical fact of the Resurrection truly depend on whether or not a television evangelist has sex with a hooker in a grungy motel?
I see JS’ certainty that science will eventually answer all of our questions regarding the physical universe to be a faith every bit as childlike as that required by the Christian. Perhaps even more so, because even if all our questions regarding What and How were settled, this would not provide us with the answers to Why and What Now.
Anyhow, while I appreciate the enthusiasm of his regard, I can assure JS that I am no genius, let alone a super-genius. I’m already too much given to adverbial extravagance, let’s not join the ranks of the linguistically adulterous.