10/10/2002 - 10:45 p.m.

The word is either sufficient, or it is not.

Two heavy subjects, education and religion. If you don't go in for heavy discussion, read Phoenixchild instead. I'm sure she'd appreciate you adding her to your favourites.

Man, am I ever glad I'm not in high school anymore. My classes are not just a waste of time and paper and worksheets, and no one yet has asked me where I got my papers from. All the time in middle school my teachers would ask me where I got my paper from, because I certainly couldn't have written it. It didn't read like a middle schooler's paper. You're damn right they didn't, I could write. I'd write my own damned papers, and get accused of plagarism. Teacher's don't expect students to do good work. It's completely stupid.

College Gen Eds are just to catch everybody up to where they should've been when they graduated high school, but where most of them are not. That's the scariest part about it.

After Humanities today I got to talking to the prof, and mentioned to him that I had no idea how many Protestants there really are in the US. Apparently it's something like 80% of the population, and he figures at UNI it's a little higher. (This part of the state is the devout Lutheran section, and those guys pretty much stick to Luther.)

Anyway, he said that he had to be pretty careful most of the time because so many people would get very angry at him when he would suggest that there was anybody who had ever disbelieved in the Trinity. I never realised how very religious most people are. I was aware that there were crazy Fred Phelps bible thumpers and there were Catholics, and there were people who go to church, but I mean, I didn't realise that so many people actually believed in all of it.

I've always looked on the whole religion thing as just a story that people found a meaning and basis in to show them how to live their lives. I didn't realise how many people were fixed in the seven day creation theory until middle school, and I didn't really realise that the whole "Jesus is the son of God" thing was so widespread.

Anyway, from all this, I got an idea for a story. It'll be interesting, and most of the religious folks probably won't like it, but it'll be based on as many of the "facts" I can find in the Bible as possible. I shan't tell you what it's about, but if it turns out good, I'll post it here later.

Although, I have to say, I am reminded of the Baptist preacher in Laramie Project. All about how the Bible tells that the earth is 6000 years old. Hold on, Mr. Baptist man, show me the passage. Show me where it has it written out in words "the earth is six thousand years old". There are lots of people who have "determined" the age of the earth based on the Bible, and they aren't all getting the same numbers. It must not be written there to directly, eh?