Chapter Eight; WRAPPING UP THE TOP TEAMS part thirty-four

The fourth largest group of adherents are the Hindu. Most of these adherents are from the India and Asian subcontinent. I have a visited a lot of hotels around the country and it seems like most of the Indian Hindu run these hotels. Oddly enough they all seem to have the last name “Patel”. I am not sure what it is about their religion or culture that attracts them to the hotel business but they do, indeed, seem to have an attraction for it.
After the Hindu, the rest of the World's adherents are far and wide but number under a billion and are spread across the planet. This area includes everyone to Norse Gods worshipers to indigenous beliefs, to Pagans and Jewish and Satanist and all the other Wide World of Faith.
When it comes to changes in religious belief, it isn't Jesus that defeated Zeus in The Colosseum to take over the Roman Empire. Jesus didn't defeat Thor in Sweden. It wasn't the Bedouin tribal religions that Muhammad destroyed but it was the followers of their teachings that converted by freewill or by force to change those nations into the followers they have now.
It has always seemed odd to me, even as a devout follower that if God is all knowing and all powerful and everywhere all the time, why would he ever need men to fight on his behalf? It seems really a sign of weakness on God's part. I guess if your using the team concept you could say that God is paying the players to play. But that does reduce the all powerful aspect of God and Allah too to just a rich team owner. But it could lend credence to the “money is power” saying. My view now is if your God is not powerful to do whatever you think he should do to me or others on his own then you need to change your God. Or at least reevaluate how powerful said god really is.
What is a god that wants or needs anything? It seems though he always wants money and your time and your thoughts and your clothing and your children and your anger and joy and all those things like he isn't God already. Imagine if you walked into work and you have a nice letter laying on your desk and it had your name written in gold calligraphy. You open the letter and it tells you that you have been promoted to God. I would be pretty happy myself. None of this silly fighting about which piece of dirt is the best or what to eat. I would just will it to happen and then we would all live in peace.
But maybe God doesn't like peace or isn't really able to cause it to happen. I know for my team, they like peace but they generally are not too powerful to make it happen. Seems there are to many adherents willing to do the work that their deity should be doing while they should just be marveling in his awesome power. This is actually a good point from the teaching of Jesus, “He who is without sin should cast the first stone.”

Chapter Eight; SPORTS AND RELIGION part thirty-one

This section is not the review of how so many sports heroes choose to solicit God's favor on their athletic endeavors but how who or what sports you choose to support has much to do with the same processes that one will select their religion. There has been many books and articles about that phenomenon. What I am referring to is the phenomenon of how who and what sport and/or team a person likes is very similarly wired as that in which we pick and support our favorite athletics events.

No one would argue with a person from Tyngsboro, Massachusetts that they are fans of the Patriots, Celtics, Bruins or Red Sox. However, if you were seen around town wearing a Yankees' jersey you might have a mild to serious confrontation. This is plainly understood as being from Massachusetts and the New England area that your going to support the team that represents your area locally.

But how reasonable is something like this to believe in? If one was to look at the rosters of most of the players of the teams you would find that most of them are not from your local area or attended college in that region. So really the support from the team is not so much the players themselves but from the employer that is able to hire them to work for your local team.

Because of this, it is easy to see that adherence to a sports team is largely due to where a person is born or raised or has some other intrinsic or intangible connection to the team. These connections can be anything from meeting a person when they were in high school or college or knowing someone in their family or being from the same state or town as the athlete. The possible reasons for liking a team or player is about is endless as there are fans of sports.

Sports fans are indeed fanatical and have strong views and opinions of what they think about their team and the teams that play them. We have seen on television and in person fans dressed to expressed their devotion to the team. Though these fans are fanatical, it would not be reasonable for a fan to say their team won even if the team had been clearly beaten. To this, alas, there are exceptions. But for the most part the fanatical adherence to the team is in spite of “win or lose” not because of it. Just ask any Cubs fan.

So when opposing sports fans come together the idea is not to change the mind of the fan to cheer or support your team but to have that fan's team defeated on the field of competition. If the end of the season each teams fans had converted to the winning teams by the end of most seasons logically there would be only one fan base and the other teams would be without support.

This is very similar to how religion works. For the most part we are “fans” of the religion that is dominate in our region. In The South it may be The Southern Baptist church. In the north it may be Catholic Church, out in Idaho and Utah it might me Mormon. In some states being Lutheran or Methodist may be the most popular selection for most people to be “fans” of the local religion. But unlike sports there are usually no team colors of church heroes like in sports. You do not have 24/7 coverage on TV for particular denominations and churches. Actually there are many of these channels but they are no where as popular as the regular cable sports channels.

But unlike in sports, these religious “teams” do not compete head to head in debate and discussion. In such a competition it would be reasonable to expect people to convert from one faith to another. Unlike with my sports team scenario. This may be why there is a truce in public about discussing levels and ideas of faith and belief of our favorite religious “team”. I can only imagine the Methodists going up against the Mormons in Sunday afternoon competition for souls saved. Winner gets the championship.

Since for the most part people attach an even deeper adherence to issues of faith, it is makes sense that is a person is willing to get into a fight for their sports teams, they would be even more willing to attack a person that is attacking their religious belief.

But when their adherence to a religion is viewed as simple geography or other illogical factors it should be a small step to see that if one was born in another part of the world or a different time the deeply held faith that they feel is so important to their lives becomes nothing than rooting for the “home team”.

I guarantee that if children from India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany or Zaire were adopted and raised in the United States that the children would be some sort of Christian adherents by the time they are adults.

So what we really have with the view of the World's religions is the same thing as cheering for your countries soccer team in the World Cup.

• “I like Brazil soccer because I am from Brazil.”

• “I like the St. Louis Cardinals because I am from St. Louis.”
• “I am Islamic because I am from Saudi Arabia.”
• “I am Mormon because I am from Idaho.”
• “I am Baptist because my friends are.”
• “I am Jewish because my family is.”
• “I am Pentecostal and I like Joel Osteen and Marlyn Hickey.”
• “I am Hindu because my family is from India.”
• I am a Christian because I have had a Revelation from Jesus.

Each and everyone of these is a simplification of the adherent but there is just a slight departure from what a person believes to how a person acts. Never would a Christian adherent that lives and works in The United States and has a comfortable life, relatively speaking, would think for a moment that they would ever have a different faith if they would born in a different country or to a different belief of their parents. A person believes their view of God would follow them no matter where on Earth they lived. But the truth is that your view on God is based upon your family and your culture mainly.

Does a boy start attending church because he likes what the pastor says or is his real motivation to meet that new pretty girl that just moved to town? Is the woman attending church because she likes the message or because this is a good place to find a potential mate for her and a step-father for her three year old son?

I was recently told by a old friend of mine that I should find a nice Bible preaching church and find a good godly woman there so I would have a nice social place to call a home. It was said as a statement for my good will and to have something more to my life but it also was saying that going to church is a good place to pick up women.

Oddly, Church is one of the few places where asking a woman out is not seen as out of place but an almost religious action because doing it in the presence of fellow adherents means “God is in the relationship”. One soon has an entire support system set up and will be socializing with other couples either married or dating as well. This is one of the reason why one would go to a certain church and support the “home team” to find a mate.

So is being an adherent really anything more than timing and location?

I am a veteran and served in both the Air Force and the Army. When you join the military you are processed as you enter in. Much as how you are checked out in a grocery store. First come, first serve. SO you go through the processing and travel to where you have your basic training at.

One there depending on when the rest of the people in for your training class arrive you get assigned a transition location and then, finally a training class. Now in the Air Force my Training flight was “Flight 465”. This of course had no meaning to me whatsoever. “Flight” is a subunit of how the units are divided In the Air Force. They taught a mnemonic device to remember what these divisions are: How many new airmen will get sore feet? Which relates to Headquarters USAF, Major Commands, Numbered Air Forces, Air Divisions, Wings, Groups, Squadrons, and Flights. So I knew that a flight was pretty far down on the Air Force structure.

During my time in Basic Training we had various competitions with other flights in the barracks. Things from class test scores to inspections and physical fitness scores. We had a name for our particular flight which I have long since forgot but we painted a symbol of our flight in the flight day room.

The point of this is I very well could have been put in Flight 466 or Flight 464 and so on. But we worked hard because we felt that “Flight 465” itself was the best and we were lucky to be a part of it. Not that we were the total component of the flight and it was what we made it.

These are the sorts of random events that religious adherents usually do not even consider when it comes to the religious faith they hold or why they hold it. The most common answer when I ask a religious adherent why they believe this or that boils down to, “My faith” tells me what I believe is right. If you ask them if they think that they would be a “fill in Christian denomination here” if they lived in India or Indonesia? Inevitably they say, "Of course." So the next question I would ask is, "Why do you think that?" They will usually tell me, "Because God has shown me his truth."

I would like to see this put to the test. After all, someone that is willing to die for their faith is willing to die for nothing. There is a long history in every religion of martyrs. In the Christian religion one of the more famous books is Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I would like to rename that book: Foxe's Book of Suicidal Dogma Adherents. Each and everyone of the persons killed and the ones doing the killing in that book killed for nothing at all. Just an idea of their “team” being the best team and if you disagreed, you will die. Now that is what you call the faithful fans.

Coming Next Time:

THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD part thirty-two

Chapter Five; WHAT GOOD ARE NON-BELIEVERS? part seventeen

After the discussion of the church does good, let’s to follow with the good, non-believers. It seems there would be less to say in this area, than the prior one. I actually had to force myself to move on, as the topic is a bit unending and likewise, unnerving to tackle.
To begin, it is important to define what I view as a non-believer. This has been attempted many times, by both adherents and non-adherents. For discussion purposes, I will simply say that a non-believer is someone that does not believe in, either passively or actively, any religious dogma or believes in any supernatural beings, such as ghost, trolls, elves, demons, giants, fairies, griffins and so forth. Non-believers, also, do not acknowledge make-believe lands, such as Heaven, Hell, Krypton, Atlantis, Xanadu, El Dorado, Shambhala, Santa's North Pole, Nirvana, Shangri-La and so forth.
Anything beyond this , I prefer not to group or include in the definition. Basically, non-believers do not share any one set of world views. There is no dogma for non-believers. As it has been said by many more intelligent people than I, everyone is an atheist about most gods. Atheists and non-believers take it further one more god, than most. One final point, it will be a hard and long search find an atheist that says “categorically” there is no god. The point is that any evidence or proof put forth, falls short of convincing proof of a divine or supernatural. A strong atheist, like me, says there is a logical or reasonable explanation for whatever happens; no appeal to a supernatural is needed.
Now that we know what I mean by non-believer, let's see what good non-believers are. It is not that adherents of other religions are not good. By no means, the view that is common in much of the United States is that atheists cannot be trusted. Since becoming a non-believer in the late 1990's, I have made two observations. First, non-believers, for the most part, are more truthful and honest than believers. I guess I have a somewhat unique perspective, having the last name True. I always felt that it was something to live up to. Most non-believers I have talked to agree with the idea that lying should be avoided, if at all possible.
However, when as a Christian, I would lie, mislead, embellish and so forth, I never worried much about it. I knew that I had the Lord on my side and His great pink eraser in the sky to clean up the missteps. How great it is to know that whatever you do, can be erased with a few whispered words. That is an offer that is hard to refuse. Christian believers, with a smile on their face, can lie to a person without any regret, whatsoever. This is not the case with non-believers. We have one time to get it right. If we wrong someone, we have only that person to deal with, to make it right. That means, we have to deal with them face to face or at least admit to them, through writing. I notice that honesty is a much more common policy with non-believers, based upon personal experience. I have seen some recent polls supporting this view.
When believers surveyed about their personal behavior, they are more likely to say what they “should” say. Non-believers reveal a more realistic view of their morals and honesty. A non-adherent doesn't have a “goal” to reach as far as their personal integrity. They just have to decided what works best in society and for themselves. I have heard and seen this through a variety of sources, dealing with different surveys over the years. In a way, it makes sense that an atheist would be “the least trusted group” in America, because we are more likely to be honest. There may indeed be a commandment that tells the believers not to bare a false witness, but the believers would be hard pressed to have it apply to them in their daily life. Maybe if they were killed for a violation of breaking the truth, then there would be more people willing to adhere to the truth. But, the truth is the enemy of religion and faith.
It is said that, “the truth will set you free” . In religion, the truth will get you in trouble. That is why there is so much secrecy in the upper echelons of churches. Many ministries try to hide their meetings behind councils or boards to advise the ministers or spiritual leaders. Misdirection and subterfuge are the tools of many churches, and works well most.
Many adherents admit that they are not perfect but they are forgiven. The truth of the matter is that they are indeed forgiven. The person doing the forgiving is themselves. So as long as they go “genuflect” then they have received the forgiveness that they think that they deserve. By genuflect I mean any traditional process that one can do that is said to produce a desired effect though it really is vestigial in reality. It shows it self in more as a traditional process instead of a faith based reality when one asks a person to actually help and there is no action on that person part.
I was told one time that you can judge a person by the actions that they take with their life and that their actions speak louder than their words. Based upon this I would have to conclude that most of the faithful do not even know much less believe in the religion that they adhere to. Anyone that says they love God and has hate or ill will toward their fellow man is a liar and doesn't know what the Bible teaches. Even those that hide behind the current phrase about God hating the sin but loving the sinner fail to take into consideration that Jesus was the one that reached out to and spent most of his time with the poor, homeless the outcasts of his society. I am sure that most of the atheist that I have meet had Christians show the love they profess in their lives when they were searching for the truth that most of them would still be adherents Today. By this I say, believers are to blame for most people leaving the faith.

Coming next time: GOD IN CHAOS: 

Chapter Six: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN AMERICA part eighteen

Chapter Two: ASSURANCE OF SALVATION? part four

To this statement, [Assurance of Salvation] I can already hear the devout and the faithful saying that I must not have been truly saved or filled with the spirit. First, one cannot say that according their own belief system. They cannot know my sincerity and willingness to know more of God. Also, I was one of the most devout and on fire believers that one would come across. But it will be said, never the less.
One of the main reasons that I went through the process of covering my background was to answer what many believers say to me, “If you only really experienced the Power of God you would know He is real. Just open up your heart and let God speak to you.”
During this time of my more profound adherence, I wouldn't have thought the ideas of science and faith were in conflict. I did start to see some incompatible ideas with the literal translation of the Bible verses and science. But the idea was more one of understanding the Bible. I used to actually think that all the answers of The Universe could be found in the Bible. It was just a matter of study to find them compatible with science.
For instance, I knew that the Earth was not six thousand years old. But, I found a verse in II Peter 3:8 that said, “Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” With this verse I was able to either literally expand the “six” day creation of the Earth or add an indefinite period of time, even billions of years. So, still there was not a conflict with science and faith. But there started to be some things like the idea of water to wine. I knew there had to be an actual reason for these miracle. Even God had to obey the law of nature that he established.
We are not talking about a movie or comic book, but the physical Universe. Every miracle had to have a physical reason, even the “five fish and three loaves of bread.” To me, the only way this “fish story” was true was if fish were really much bigger than the story would lead us to believe. Let's say, for instance, five full sized tuna fish. That would have been a lot of food to spread among the people. Then feeding 5,000 plus people would have been easy. I was one of those that accepted the miracles of Christ, but didn't know how He did them, yet.
There was a reasonable answer; I just had to find it. I really didn't accept the idea of ghosts or other ideas like that. Angels were a tolerable idea to me, but not one that I felt that comfortable with. To me the main objects of religion were the God team of the trinity and Satan in his disguises. Maybe a few more spirits were out there, now and then.
Why on Earth would I not want to know God? If there was a god it just made the most complete sense to me to learn all I could about him. This is the heart of the matter, isn't it? If there is a God, one would have to be delusional not to believe in it. I would whole-heartedly agree. Plus, the more you knew Him, the better you could serve His purpose. One would have to be insane, not wanting to follow God. The truth of the matter is, each person has his or her own reasons for the level of enthusiasm they follow or don't follow a god. Many feel their level of commitment is just enough to live a good and productive life in society. “Go along, to get along” would be that perspective. Each person has their own reasons how, where and why they follow the religion that they believe.
While this is testimonial, I can say with much certainty that there were few that were on fire for God the way I was. There is little that any follower of Jesus can say to me, that I have not read or studied concerning faith and dogma of the Christian faith. With my level of study, I am sure I could have been ordained as a pastor in some churches. This was never the path I sought, though.

Chapter One; LIVING IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD part two

Somewhere between my curious nature and my desire to interact with my environment, I looked critically at the world. So as a child, when my family went to church, I really had no idea what it was about. I liked the children sermons given at Our Savior's Lutheran Church. It was fun to go in front of the sanctuary and sit with the other kids beside the pastor, since he seemed to be the reason everyone was there.


When I was a child my family attended this church in Durant, OK. It is Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. It was my first time to be exposed to anything religious. The sanctuary looks nearly the same as it did when I was a child. I remember that the cross was quite impressive and I would stare at it endlessly, enjoying all the colors and shapes of the tile artwork.

Some things I recall about church at an early age involves a lot of people that I didn't know. We shared Sunday School classes with kids that were not in my regular school. When singing songs, the words in the hymnals were not sung in the same order as a book is read. You got dress up in nice clothes when you went to church. The buildings were nice and had a lot of cool stuff to look at. Plus, we usually went out to eat on Sunday after church. These were a few of the reasons that I liked going to church.




This was the first church I ever attended of my own choice, Bethel Baptist Church in Ardmore, OK. It was just a few blocks from my house so I walked there most every Sunday morning. When I was staying with my Grandmother the Sunday School teacher, Don Ray Thomason, would come out in the country to pick me up. It was a very nice and friendly place.

A few years later my family moved to Ardmore, OK and the family pretty much stopped going to church. Strangely enough, I was the only one in my family, for a long time, that went to church. It started when I was ten years old with a Vacation Bible Study. I told my Mother about the church; we visited the church; she checked the place out and decided that the people were OK. At the VBS, I remember one of my favorite things was working on the arts and crafts, wanting to make them as good as I could. But I thought the stories were nice, too. This began my personal journey with God and Christians.
At church, during the sermon, I would listen closely to the words the preacher would say and read along with the Bible. When a verse was given, I would start ahead and read after it. I knew that would give me better understanding of the context of what was being said. I knew from growing up reading The Hardy Boys book series and other books. One has to read the whole story to know what is going on in context. I enjoyed the challenge of learning about what was being preached and taught in the church. So, I was in church almost every Sunday. I went to Sunday School, the service, and when I could, the Sunday and Wednesday evening services, too. If we had evening visitation at the nursing homes I would attend.
To me, this was one of the first things that I did for myself, outside my family. Besides going to school, living in the small town didn't provide a lot of options for activities. So for me, church became my hobby. I actually went there so often that I would show up on Saturday to help mow the lawn. I quickly learned many of the stories and words of the Bible. It wasn't long before I could say the books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation forward and backward.
This was also the time when I learned to read aloud. It was a skill I was quite proud of. I had received the King James Version of the Bible, so I felt that reading those “odd” words as I was speaking was doing well. It was the only Bible I had honestly ever read. It was odd that it was not written as a paragraph, but in separate verses, one at a time. I actually liked reading the Bible. The stories seemed so odd to me, but it sure was good when a story came up in church that I had already read. As I was familiar with the story, the message was easier to understand. Plus ,it made it better when I reading the verses aloud in my Sunday school class, because I knew what the story was about.
It was, at times, excruciating to hear others my age and even older, struggle with words as they read. Especially the Hebrew names and cities. Of course, I just said them the way I was taught. I had to correct some of the pronunciations, as I learned how to say them when I got older.
Recently, I went back to visit Ardmore, OK and took the pictures of Bethel Baptist Church and reconnected with my first Sunday School teacher. Don Ray Thomason was a very important influence in my life as a young boy. As one that believes in God, he is a good example of someone who tries to live the values he professes. At the time I attended the church, I would often ride with Don Ray as he picked up people for church. He is still doing that Today, however, the church now has two vans so Don Ray doesn't have to use his personal vehicle.
To me it was important to visit them. [Don Ray's wife is Betty Jo, whom I also knew at the time.] They are a good example of living a good life and applying the principles of the life of Jesus, without a strong persecution aspect. I would say that to me, Don Ray and Betty Jo represent the prototypical positive image of what a southern Baptist couple should be. If it was only based upon how someone lived their life, they indeed provided a good example.
However, there is more to life than just a sterling example of behavior. There is the reality of the Universe and the way cause, effect and logical principles apply to life. At this point, many people are more than willing to accept a good life and live blissfully in the limited knowledge of what they have learned. But, that was not the path I chose.
One of my early joys was attending the adult Bible study on Wednesday nights at Bethel Baptist Church. I had my own study guide. In the days proceeding class, I would read and fill in the answers according to the text listed in the study guide. I recall the first one I had was on the book of Acts. Of course, this really is not much of a study of the Bible, as there are often more than one answer that can be derived from the text and your understanding of the text. Until you go to the class, you don't know which one is “right”. But the idea that I was a kid and doing the same study as the grown ups was pretty cool.


This is the interior of the Bethel Baptist Church In Ardmore, OK. With very little exception the sanctuary looks the same it did in 1976 to 1978.

I was like a newly hatched chick in a nest. I just wanted more and more of this stuff. I still didn't really understand why but my adherence to Christianity surely impressed many of the older people in the church. I often received compliments about my attendance and participation. This is also when I was told, strangely enough, “That God has something special for you in your life, Thomas.” This always seemed odd to me for several reasons. First, what could this special thing be. And second, how could this person have an idea like that? How could they possible know? But it was just another of the anomalies that I came across with religion. I smiled and said, “thank you”.

Chapter One; THE NATURAL WORLD part one

The purpose of this book is to examine and understand the purpose of religion in the view of the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection. It is hoped that you and I will work to explore some of the ideas of God, Religion, and the supernatural in America and the world. I am not going to take the time to explain the detailed biological aspect of Natural Selection. To be quite honest the nuts and bolts of the process from the lab and such are beyond my current knowledge. One thing that makes this book so great is that I use interpretive analysis of the evidence to explain the concepts. There are a great many books and videos available at your local library or bookstore that can give you the background you need on the subject.12 For one of many Internet resources the University of California at Berkley provides a nice primer to begin with.3 One of my favorite, as you will learn in section three, is Cosmos: A Personal Journey.4 Just as with the probability of life must be common enough for it to occur at least one place in the Galaxy or universe, because we are here and alive. Likewise, there must be a reason for religion in human evolution because it is also here in every culture known on Earth.
It may seem like a strange idea for me as an atheist to to try to explain and even justify a reason for religion. I am not sure I will be able to go as far as to justify it but I will try to take a even handed look at its aspects and influences on modern life. I assure you I am far from the first one to do this and I may not be the best one to attempt this subject. I do, however, feel I have a somewhat a unique perspective on this subject as my background has been deeply involved in both science and religion. Without a doubt much more so in religion than science but both still very much self researched and pursued. My purpose in writing this is to help explain in more common terms how and why religion is used and some would say even needed at times by mankind.
Concerning science, I always had a curious nature of how things work. I remember as a young boy of eight or nine years old getting tools and taking apart things like radios, furniture, turntables to see how they worked then putting them back together. I was lucky that even at that age I knew it was a good idea to have the electric cord unplugged or I may not have had the chance to write this Today. I was glad when after putting the item back together it worked as it should. When I was not successful at reassembling something it would cause my mother no end of distress. The question usually was, “Thomas why on Earth would you take [insert item here] apart?” To which my answer would be, “ I wouldn't to see how it worked.”
Part of this curious nature came from my older brothers and I making plastic models as kids. We would go to the local T.G. & Y. discount store and buy all types of models they had, from cars to planes and ships of all sorts. Plus I learned to use the detailing tools with paint and sanding to make the models look their best. Then after spending hours upon hours making the cars look great we would have a “crash and burn” day. That is when we would take the cars and at different levels of destruction watch them come apart. Finally the result would be a glue enhanced fiery crash of two or more cars.
What this means to me is that a lot of attention to detail was a big part of my youth just to have it all go up in smoke for my own enjoyment. Even the smoke held fascination for me. As the plastic burnt it had a black smoke which was different than the smoke of grass burning or cigarettes or other things I had seen burn prior to that. Plus it was easy to capture by simply putting another piece of plastic above the flame and letting the black smoke gather on it. All this lead me to understand that there was a very specific process to be able to make models and to disassemble and reassemble household items.
I also spent hours walking all over the small town of Durant, Oklahoma to see what was around town. I was like a tourist and wanted to see everything that was around me. It was a curious world with the trees, rocks, streets, cars, homes and people all around me at different levels of condition all on the same street and city I was in.
As I remember, some of my most favorite things to do as a young boy was to watch the construction workers on the streets or on a housing site. I would stand by a backhoe and watch them dig deeper or longer and move the dirt out of the hole to the truck or to the side of the hole as it went along. Also I would watch as these men built homes putting up the frames and even walking around inside the wall less house. It is there when I notice that the plumbing fixtures came up through the concrete and the plumbers really didn't spend that much time at the work site. Only in the begging and the end. But it seemed the rest of the workers were there all the construction. So watching these men work provided me an early experience of how cause and effect was in reality. You raise a board, nail it to another board, continue the process soon your have a frame for a wall.
One of the other places that I would find myself at many times is when I heard a fire truck near by I would try to find it to see what was going on. If there was a fire I would watch the fire fighters working. It always fascinated me that they worked so fast but the fire would still destroy the building anyway. The town I lived in was very small so a fire anywhere in town wouldn't take that long to find anyway.
While on one of my walks I came upon a mimosa tree with leaves that were very small and would pull off easily into my hands. The result left the leaves in my thumb and forefinger a conical appearance to them. After pealing off several layers of these leaves I went to wash off the green from the leaves and to my amazement there was a soapy lather as I rub my hands together. I am not sure if this is a natural soap or just a normal reaction to that particular plants being rubbed underwater. I did take it to mean that if I ever needed to wash my hands and there was no soap but one of the mimosa trees I would use that. And I did use that information many times while I was a young boy. Another plant I gained knowledge from was the magnolia tree. They had these trees all over the town and they had peculiar flowers and buds. I found that is I picked the flower and rubbed it with my finger or tore it, very quickly it would turn from the white color to a dark brown. One thing for sure I learned about the magnolia tree id there flowers are very sent filled. I didn't mind playing with the buds of the tree but I didn't so much like the smell afterward, another lesson in cause and effect.
Walking around town looking at the creeks and streams, following them to see where they went and what was in and around them was also a past time I enjoyed. One time with some from friends from my neighborhood, we were at a nearby creek and found a huge turtle. We had found many other smaller ones in the past but this one had to be 14 to 16 inches, head to tail. It wasn't like the little snapper turtles that we normally found. We decided that turtle had to gotten there from a recent rain the day before. That was the only way we could figure out that the huge turtle could make it all the way down to that part of the creek. There very well may have been other ways but this was the conclusion we reached. Even at the age of eight my mind was piecing together cause and effects of the natural world. I know that things had to make sense naturally.




This small creek, a clear running stream in Durant, OK, is the same location where I spent time as a child with friends gathering crawdads, other small animals and exploring the natural world.

At this age most little boys want to have a place for themselves, a “fort, tree house” or “club” if you will. But what does a little boy know about construction? I knew that the walls had to be strong enough to support the roof. I had observed a lot of construction but doing is quite another thing. I also knew that if you didn't have enough wood to make it high enough to stand up in you can dig down into the ground to give yourself more headroom. Kevin Winguard, a friend of mine and I built a clubhouse secure enough to stand on its own and walk inside upright. We made the walls, roof and floor ourselves. We even ran a power cord out to it so we could have light and play music on my record player. Not only would it hold us, but my two brothers were actually was surprised how deep it was inside when they came in.



When I was eight or nine years old I lived at this house in Durant, OK. This backyard is where I built one of my many “forts” with my friend Kevin Winguard.

What Kevin and I had done was to put posts or boards into holes we dug into the ground to make sure it was high enough for us to stand in, yet deep enough to hold the weight. The walls were stepped and arranged in a circle and the opening was stepped down into the ground to get in and out easier. This clubhouse last for about six months.
What I have learned from this and other experiences like this is that when I see artifacts of man from the past. I see not only the history of man but my own history as a youth. When I used the tools and items around me to make something greater then what was there to begin with. Each step man has taken in progress is still with us today because we are the same men and woman of that time. We have just learned to build upon the work of other great inventors and ingenious people from before.

1 http://richarddawkins.net/
2 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/
3 http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01
4 http://www.carlsagan.com/