Inbox — Oct. 3, 2012

Broaden Your Horizons
I am an avid reader of LEO and really enjoyed your Readers’ Choice issue (Sept. 19), however I was disappointed that so much of Metropolitan Louisville was excluded, particularly the West End. You could have included categories such as Best Streetside Grill, Best Hole in the Wall, Best Black Barbershop (hated to include race, but nothing like a black barbershop), Best Church Choir, Best Soul Food, etc. You simply missed out, LEO.

I think you guys do a great job, but you should be more inclusive and recognize the diversity of our city from West End, East End to the South End.
Ruben Pulliam III, Phoenix Hill/Highlands

I’m Still Right
In response to Inbox letters written by the following: Thomas E. Rutledge, Rich Mills and Spencer Davis in the Sept. 19 LEO Weekly, I present this challenging update to my position.

Mathematically, given enough years, the Bible generally comes out on top of all arguments. There are, from time to time, secular revisions in regards to dates, times and events in regards to history. One amazing example is the upcoming controversy regarding the newly imagined story of Cleopatra’s death. The cities discovered from the biblical text apply to my argument and are not comparable to the issue of Troy, because scientists were previously making points that the Bible was in error, like the writers above.

There are no religious or scientific methods that differ, only a play on words. Some of the greatest minds in history believed in God. The term “theory” is a great academic word, but it simply refers to a fact or series of facts that are mixed with opinions, guesses (hypotheses) or belief systems. Usually, in forming these so-called scientific methods, the facts are overwhelmed by the belief systems, leaving the whole theory doomed to be changed over time.

Evolution is not a good theory, and this is why many scientists, secular and Christian, are abandoning it. Science is the search for truth, and methods reaching that truth should be infinite, not finite. Presuppositions abound, and mine contends water pressure formed fossils as opposed to upheavals of the Earth’s crust.
Mark D. Milby, Camp Taylor

Outside the Womb
Phylogeny recapitulates ontology. A simple phrase. It explains gills and tails during mammalian fetal development in utero. Outside the womb is when the trouble begins. People need to learn how to cope with areas of science and fiction and those areas in between. As the late Hunter S. Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

So it is with religion. If you don’t understand it, go pro. Ask any televangelist. Go pro. There are at least six low-watt TV Christian broadcast stations in the Louisville area. Each preaches a different interpretation of the Bible. Every one has a different take on the sand story. One minister claimed in Luke 2:42 that God gave Jesus the instructions on how to make a prayer shawl, even to its color. Look it up. Another, a “God called pastor,” said Jesus spoke only in Hebrew. Did he? Most biblical scholars agree Jesus spoke Aramaic.

Ask if these guys want to spread the word of God or collect your wealth. The one thing they all have in common is they all beg for your “prayer offerings.” Accuracy be damned. Send us your money. We want to be like Jim and Tammy Faye — big hair, makeup, gilded chairs, theme park.

Phylogeny recapitulates ontology is absent in the three great religious tomes: the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. One would expect the deep thinkers to know of such things. They knew of begets, lots of begets, and incest, fratricide, murder, slaughter, war and hate. Most of all, hypocrisy — thou shalt not kill.

There is an order and unity in math, science and the cosmos. These three books have created more anguish, more cruelty, suffering, death and wealth — yes, wealth — than any one mind could conjure. Imagine the 3-D horror movie.
Rich Givan, Crescent Hill