If people are waiting for The Rapture, they will not be inclined to improve our lot in this life. The afterlife is all important to them as is proslytizing all non-Christians to their way of belief. Therefore, the polluted environment, deforestation and irresponsible oil acquisition, unjustified war, starvation of third world peoples, overpopulation, denying a woman’s right to chose about reproduction, the spread of HIV, and the abysmal decline in our youth’s education, are of no serious concern to them. Fundamentalists are a danger to our very existence on this planet.

There are those who say, “Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion.” Some opinions are better than others; some are not even worth considering. According to religious Fundamentalists, who await the coming of the Messiah and The Rapture, they are eager to enter that eternal life. That ‘opinion’ is a danger to all humankind because its very core threatens everyone in this universe in the present and in the future. Can you imagine listening to Jerry Falwell every Sunday morning for the rest of eternity? I would rather wind up in Hell with all the other exciting people of this world who challenged narrow mindedness and expanded our rational consciousness so that we are here today to contemplate this very important issue.

Rationalists stand on the shoulders of giants and try to make the lot of (Wo)Mankind better than it was for previous generations by expanding our knowledge of the universe(s). Fundamentalists of all ilks stand in a bog of quicksand with shamans screetching and preaching magic to the ignorant, the stupid, the gullible and most sadly, the opporunists in our society who see this foolishness as a way to extract money from all those less fortunate in this life by promising them an unknown prize in some make-believe afterlife.

Since poker is such a fad now, maybe this will illustrate my point: waiting for this fairy-tale afterlife is like playing hold ’em and waiting for the fourth ace to show up when you are holding an ace, two aces are already on the board and one opponent has been betting strongly like he has the other ace. I don’t want to play in that game.