As a parent I spend a great deal of time making sure that my child’s opinions and arguments are supported by facts and evidence. Since she was very small we made it clear to her that she was free to believe anything she wanted, but that it didn’t make it true. “What do you think?” was, and is, asked frequently because she has to know how to jump start her thinking, and root it in logic, without us spoon feeding her.

She has shifted her belief system many times and probably will again before all is said and done. Once, when she was 4 or 5 years and had started getting into computer games, we were shopping at Costco and she asked me if we were really people in computer game that someone else was playing. I said ‘what do you think’ and she followed this argument line for a while ending with the conclusion that it was silly.

I remember this incident because a woman nearby overheard her question and stopped dead in her tracks with her jaw hanging. Cracked me up. A few years later she decided there was no God because it didn’t make sense. Who am I to argue.

My point is that we work very, very hard to make sure that she can separate what is belief, which requires no evidence, and what is fact, which requires evidence. I would like the rest of the f’n  world to work as hard as I do at preserving this important distinction.

Right now Romney trying to distance himself from Akin and Dr. Jack Willke even though he was once proud that Willke “supported and endorsed” him in 2007. Willke is the medical doctor, and so called father of the pro-life movement, who “BELIEVES” the theory that rape induced pregnancies are rare, and “BELIEVES” the trauma of rape shuts down the woman’s reproductive system. Willke “BELIEVES” this so much that he has included it in educational materials and calls himself an expert on human sexuality.

Can we revoke this mans medical licence for not knowing biology? Or can we at least make people who believe this kind of stuff have to wear signs that say “Crazy Town Banana Pants”?

I mean come on!

Its hard to believe people can be this ignorant of basic biology, but I guess if it interferes with your world view you can just leave bits out.  Personally I don’t BELIEVE that Romney and Ryan are possible as a presidential ticket, does that mean they will just quit and go away?

I’ll just take that one on Faith.