Soul Mates

       "Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.
       Little ones to him belong; they are weak but he is strong."

       Uncle Jack must have been about three years old when he learned that song, along with a lot of others touting the benefits of the Christian faith, in Sunday School at Nidaros Lutheran Church in Ashland, Wisconsin. Later, under the tutelage of the Reverend John A Houkum (pronounced hokum to Uncle Jack's everlasting delight) he memorized enough of the Nicene Creed to be admitted to membership in the Lutheran Church of America, Missouri Synod. (To this day he doesn't know why the Lutheran Church of America was split up into competing synods, or why there were five Lutheran churches in his home town, none of which could muster a congregation large enough to support a full-time minister).
      The Nicene Creed concludes with the words "We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come" and there is no doubt in Uncle Jack's mind that at the age of twelve or thereabouts when he pledged allegiance to the Lutheran Church he probably believed it, although he doubts that he gave it much thought at the time,  In that respect he is probably similar to all children who have been indoctrinated with one set of beliefs or another long before they are able to think for themselves.
      Somewhere along the way, probably at the den of heretics known as the University of Wisconsin, he began to doubt much of what he had been taught in Sunday School. For example, how could it possibly be true that the world was created in seven days as the bible tells us when the geological record proves beyond reasonable doubt that the earth has been around for millions of years?  In his first anthropology course he learned a little about the astonishing variety of religious belief professed by various groups of people around the world which led him further to question the sanctity of Christianity as the one and only route to "salvation",   In due time he began to wonder about the whole notion of an afterlife which, the more he learned about biology and physics, seemed exceedingly unlikely even as he grew closer to the moment in his life when he might acquire some definitive information about it.
      Anyway you can blame Mencken for this foray into elementary metaphysics.  What set it off was this passage from "Minority Report", a collection of his writings published posthumously (if only he could come back!) in 1956.

     The fact that the pious Christian believes he will live forever is no proof that he will, though it is frequently cited as one.  Even if all men believed it it would still not be true---and perhaps for that reason alone.  All its persistence proves is that the majority of men are unable to grasp the concept of annihilation.  They grasp readily enough the idea of being unconscious  for a short time, but they are quite unable  to think of being unconscious forever.

     The more Uncle Jack thinks about the Christian concepts of  afterlife, i.e. Heaven and Hell,  the more he thinks that a very long nap might be just the ticket.

                                                   "Smart" parking in Mount Vernon

          Catching rays on "The Beach" at Johns Hopkins U. on a sunny Sunday afternoon in November.                       Further evidence of global warming.

                                                                   Go Hops!!

                                        Tree in front of a knitting shop in Hampden all ready for winter.