Aphorism of the Week

The handmaiden of faith must be doubt.

Dedicated in admonishment of Parent's Action League (PAL), whose demands that Anoka-Hennepin schools in Minnesota provide institutional "resources for students of faith and moral conviction, ex-homosexuals and ex-trangenders," "training on overcoming sexual disorders," and "lessons linking homosexuality to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases" all fail to comport with constitutional law and reason, and even with consistent application of biblical teachings, and thus are tantamount to bigotry. PAL is no "pal" to children.

Parable of the Week

The Apples, The Oranges
He was a great religious orator, a Preacher of a particular religion that claimed absolute salvation for all who shared its beliefs -- and absolute damnation for all who did not.
Yet as the right hand mirrors the left, so too was there a great philosophical orator, a Mentor of a particular philosophy that claimed regard for all -- without regard to their religious or non-religious beliefs.
One day the Preacher and the Mentor espied each other across a fruit bin at a food market.
With a baleful stare, the Preacher pointed his finger straight down and cried, "Repent! Believe in God, or be damned!"
The Mentor pondered, then picked up two fruits and replied, "And which God is that? The God of apples or the God of oranges?"
"My God!" cried the Preacher, aghast.
"Exactly the problem!" replied the Mentor, as he put first one, then the other, fruit in his basket. "How tart we'd become, on a diet of only oranges. How cloying, were our bellies filled just with applesauce, apple pie, apple juice."
The Mentor then gently placed a third fruit in the Preacher's basket. "And on your exclusive diet, oh how sour have your followers become!"
The Preacher glanced down at the fruit.
It was a lemon.
Thus, religion is a garden of the spirit, to be tended in all its diversity.

March 24, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), ©2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.