when the angels play the padres, who does god cheer for?

we've seen and heard it plenty of times. an athlete succeeds at something - sets a record, wins a big game, takes home a trophy - then thanks god.

it's a practice that rankles people for various reasons. some people find it disingenuous. others believe in the separation of church and State College. still others just wonder if god really picks a side and if he helped your team, was he going against my team?

it never bothered me one way or another. until recently.

maybe i'm getting a complex, but i'm starting to think god hates the san francisco 49ers. these feelings of inadequacy have become heightened in the wake of noted god-squadder kurt warner stopping in san francisco to talk with niner management about a possible contract. days later, he re-signed with the arizona cardinals saying god told him "you're supposed to be in arizona."

i immediately flashed back to 1993 when reggie white was shopping his wares around the nfl. it seemed a virtual lock that he was going to end up in the bay area. right up until the moment he didn't. instead he signed with the green bay packers because god told him in a dream that he should go to green bay.

does god love some players or cities more than others? can san franciscans consider themselves saved since god didn't send his disciples to their town? should cardinal and packer fans pray harder?

look, i don't ridicule anyone's beliefs. i myself have prayed over difficult decisions asking for guidance. perhaps you were given clarity. shown something negative about one of your options. felt a higher level of comfort in one place. but i'm not believing that contract negotiations are being decided from above.

i like kurt warner. i think he's a good football player and an even better human being. and (except when he's playing the 49ers) i generally wish him well on the football field. but his decision to remain in the desert may have been inspired, but it wasn't divine.

god bless charles darwin

i've always believed that there are three topics that can start an argument in a crowded room - sports, politics & religion. i've touched on two of them, here goes the third...

if he were still alive today - and presumably pumped full of living water/voodoo magic/elfin dust - charles darwin would be turning 200 years old on thursday.

walk into most churches in america and mention the theory of evolution and people start sweating like....well, like an evolutionist in church.

evolution and creation don't mix. period. pick a side. you're either with us or against us. chicken or egg. it's one or the other.

or is it?

once upon a time, the sunday sermon was certified and bonded as The Word of God. signed, sealed, delivered. no questions asked. after all, these men were ordained, appointed by The Most High. certainly they couldn't be fallible.

but throughout the decades we've drawn back the curtains on many of our once "infallible" institutions to discover that they're still run by people. many of them are well-intentioned people. but people nonetheless. subject to the same frailties and temptations that the rest of us wrestle with.

while religion hasn't been immune, the revolution has come slowly. in the call and response of the message, the once unified echoes of agreement are now mixed with questions of conscience. it has come as we have watched ideologies of all sorts suffer attacks led from the pulpit. and it has spawned a rift between spirituality and religion.

why can't creation and evolution coexist? there are undoubtedly questions that can't currently be answered by science. things about our existence that may always remain a mystery. for many intelligent, rational thinking people (i'd like to believe i fit into that category), a belief in something bigger than oneself is a comfort and a reassurance in times of overwhelming strife.

at the same time, to consider yourself rational yet deny millions of years of evidence suggesting that the world and everything in it has changed and adapted in an effort to survive is a frightening combination of arrogance and ignorance.

i grew up loving God. though as i've gotten older, i've started to have problems with some of His children. if He truly "has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 timothy 1:7), we should use it to determine how best to balance science and spirituality. let it once again be our moral guide rather than our ideological crutch.