@Intrepid,
He might not also have been so quick to pass judgment had he considered that year2027 might be a line-backer on the point of retiring after a successful career in the NFL playing for various teams and looking for a cyber friend to bring him back into the real world. And with great teeth.
I have developed a thing about American teeth. The obvious expense involved signifies a vary, very serious attempt to be sexy. Perish the thought of those nasty brown nicotine stained teeth with a gap in the middle the tip of the tongue can be stuck through to give the lads in the pub something to laugh at. It's catching on over here. We have orthodontists now. It's posh. You are teaching us proper etiquette slowly but surely. The posh first.
I do of course recognise that the only American teeth I ever see are on TV or in movies and have been screened, better than some I could mention, to present to the world what "great teeth" means. I daresay there are plenty of American teeth that are a bit iffy. Take one of my favourite Western characters who specialised in squirting a stream of tobacco juice into the prairie fire on a stop-over, or at a rearing and hissing rattlesnake. The whole audience leaned bck in its seats. No one today would have teeth like he had and be considered respectable. He had a funny eye too. He was second billing. Sidekick. Black hat. I don't know if he was an atheist or not. We never thought about such things. He was American though. I can't remember his name. I'm hopeless at names. That's why I'm not a geologist or a botanist. Names are labels for things and I'm only interested in the relations of things.
I'm interested in the relations between atheism and society. Considering what an attractive proposition atheism is, especially to the young, it is surprising it is not more popular. And that it has never been popular. Even the Chinese now allow the shrines of the major religions to be openly worshipped at. I saw one temple in The Art of Belief that had been a barracks during the cultural revolution and was now restored. "The Shrine" is the very essence of religion. The inner sanctum. The Holy Space. The Sacred.
And Mr Putin took part in a church service.
There's nothing new in atheism. I don't believe that it has been selected out all these years, perseucuted at times, because the human race consists of complete idiots whose gullibility can be assumed. How can anybody believe such a ridiculous idea.
