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>>"the fact of evolution" Is it a fact or concept? Perhaps semantics and nothing more but then I had S. I. Hiakawa as my semantics Professor. He had some very interesting stories on these and other topics.
>>******************************************************************************
>
>I err on the side of accepting evolution, so for me it is a fact. Jerry, Doug & others, believe in God, so to them God is a fact. But you're right, they are both concepts, at least semantically.
>
>>Len;
>>
>>Interesting thread! This is a discussion I enjoy with my friends and others.
>>
>>Tom
>
>I agree.
>
>With the drift from drugs to religion, I'm suprised nobody has quoted Karl Marx - "Religion is the opium of the masses". (Maybe they did & I missed it)
>
>(PS - did you update your post - I couldn't find any difference in the 2 copies)

Len;

Yes, I made a slight change which I thought was an update but turned out to be a second post. I think it is going to be a long day! :) I have had my usual one cup of tea (herbal as I can't have caffeine) so I do not know what happened. I start working at 0630 and am a morning person but these days there is too much going on to think straight.

I have always thought it to be interesting that anyone reading or quoting Karl Marx would be thought of as a communist by many people I have met in the South or Mid Western parts of the United States during the early 1960’s. This is just a personal experience.

Marx wrote many books but the one that is remembered is Das Capital, and it seems that most people know Marx for only one thing – Communism! When Marx died Friedrich Engels had the Communist Manifesto added to the end of Das Capital. The "Manifest der kommunistischen Partei" as it was known was not included in the first editions printed, but showed up in the English version which was first printed in Russia. It was very short and had nothing to do with the content of the book. To me it was just a concept of an idyllic world as envisioned by Marx.

It is amazing how ignorance drives people. People could become so enraged and intolerant when they saw me reading Das Capital or even discuss it. Things were a bit different on the West Coast at that time (and now). Open discussion on such matters was as common as breathing and you did not have to worry about it.

There are indications that our country is more tolerant than I remember it as a 17 year old in the military. However, there are still places I would never visit because of the hatred I remember expressed towards anyone who was not of the “proper faith, color, political orientation and God knows what else.

By the way the Inca's of Peru (my wife is from Peru) had the first true socialist society - which worked well until the Spainards came to visit! :)


Tom