Let's educate the kids

To OpEd, Victorville, Ca Daily Press:

Steve, maybe too deep for LETTERS, if indeed it's as profound as I suppose. But…..it might fit better somewhere else--your RELIGION Section?--or a magazine maybe, and if so could you or maybe one of the a2k fellas recommend a suitable market

I had asked my kids and their buddies but their silence suggests they didn't think it was as scholarly as I imagine

Excerpts:

... by Richard Cooper, "... comment was directed at the certainty with which we should hold our beliefs," but goes on to assert, "...we have no way of knowing whether our thought are either rational or responsible....Therefore we should always proceed with caution and humility……" Bingo! Clearly it's a matter of education…...If only we could only somehow convey this obvious cognition….. to the rest of the world.

…...." reminding us how we're hopelessly split between religious dogma on one hand and virulent atheism, ...not a belief system..." on the other……..we're being persuaded to take sides in a struggle to improve a humanity …....a superficial society of social injustice, political chaos……"

...concluding with a vague call for " "Strong language and action…."

How can we change? Should we pray? No, let's just pass more laws!

…….Russ Tice cites "...the rising level of disrespect being allowed in society today.... defecate on people's property, steal..., trespass...have total disregard....," concluding that something must be done "...to radically change our system..."

Yes, but what?
Certainly religion han't been very successful.

"....as we witness one liberty after another banished...God given rights..."

Myself [Dale], as a kid I was an avowed atheist lib,……..I gradually swung con; except for a morality still tinged blue……….. I'd agree there's something…. you might befittingly but asexually label "God," depending on your exact defs. After all, it was She who invented sex, alcohol, hops.

…...the only feasible approach lies not in the courts or churches but in our educational system….. Set 'em to thinking about life,…...And it's okay, my lad, to doubt a few things about Mom and Pop's faith…..

…..So our first job--impossible?--is to address political prejudice and the absolutism of religion…..some arbitrary set of opinion or belief………... God be damned

Maybe some of us could eventually make a worldwide difference…..we'd show the young ISIS …..in the Name of God: Woah, fella, stop and think. Suppose you had instead been born in Illinois to Catholic parents....

Dale Hileman
Apple Valley