I believe that Tiger did not stray from his religious teachings but fell prey to Buddhism’s man-centered teachings. Rather than looking for joy from "outside" himself, such as in a grace-based relationship with Christ, Tiger lived a very self-centered, prideful life of self-sufficiency.

I hope that Tiger and his wife find a way to stay married, especially for the sake of the children. But, sadly, Tiger’s adherence to Buddhism will continue to be a hindrance. All Christians should pray for Tiger Woods that he will look "outside" of himself to help that comes from the true and living God and that he will trust in Jesus Christ alone for true forgiveness and redemption.

Once again, we have people displaying their profound ignorance of other faiths and the old "If you ain’t in our exclusive club, you can’t go to Heaven" attitude. But I suppose if you’re a Christian and you acknowledge the validity of other faiths then it pokes a big hole in your fundamental belief that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to Heaven.

I’m not a Buddhist and my study of Buddhism has only scratched the surface, but I believe what Pastor Robertson calls "Buddhism’s man-centered teachings" is a belief that the divine exists within us all as well as in everything in the universe and that by discovering the divinity within us we open ourselves to the divinity that exists outside of us. To put it another way, we must know ourselves in order to know God. This is in contrast to the Western belief that God exists completely outside of us and, if we are Christians,we must accept Christ to fill an assumed spiritual void within us and, only then, can we get a ticket to Heaven.

Oh, Tiger did stray from his religious teachings, there’s no doubt about that. The basic guidelines of leading a good and righteous life aren’t really that much different. Through meditation and self-examination, he may be able to reconnect himself with the Divine and find enlightenment. It may take him more than one lifetime but he’ll get there. Enlightenment can’t be rushed.

For what it’s worth…

For what it’s worth…

Maybe it’s about time the education establishment presented the facts, the causes, the effects, the historical figures and events, without prejudice or value judgments, and let the students decided for themselves. Whoops, what am I thinking? That would encourage critical thinking and, worse yet, free thinking. We can’t have that in Amerika, can we?

Unfortunately, we live in a redneck culture. That’s the most accurate way to describe American culture — REDNECK — as in the glorious lack of sophistication. There’s always been a basic crude and unsophisticated edge to our culture but it seems to have mushroomed and run rampant in the post-9/11 era. During the Bush years, there was an obvious anti-intellectual atmosphere in religion, education and, most notably, government. It continues unabated, fueled by our fears and perpetuated by the advertising and entertainment media, the neoconservatives, and the fundamentalist religious zealots.

Essentially, people aren’t thinking for themselves, they’re not taking responsibility for their own lives. They want to be spoon-fed their thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. The people holding the spoons have their own agendas and it’s to their advantage to feed us disinformation, half-truths, and lies. As long as we remain stupid, they retain their power.

I hope that clears things up. For what it’s worth…

The moral majority is having their way. They remove sex education, remove birth control, and remove any way to reverse “accidents”. So, the dumbest members of society are the most likely to have “accidents”. They are also the least able to raise a child. How do you think all those children are going to turn out?

It’s simple evolution with a morally-defined fitness function that encourages dumb.