What are we teaching our children?

These days to argue against evolution is a good way to be labelled hopelessly ignorant of reality. Amongst the scientific community it has practically assumed the status of revealed truth. Even much of today’s theology somehow fits itself around the theory of evolution, although when first presented by Darwin it was hotly disputed by most religionists of the time.

Some still do oppose the theory, but often only on the basis of scriptural statements, which today does little more than prove you are a dogmatic fundamentalist, some kind of quaint “flat-earther”.

But

The other day I popped into a local grocer to pick up a few things. The assistant, seeing me in robes, immediately said, “Your book is wrong.”

Interesting greeting, I thought, but I merely smiled. Over the years I have become used to people reacting to my unusual appearance in all kinds of ways. Once a group of children in a small northern town asked me if I was from another planet.

Of course, I laughed at that one, but the assertions that my faith is in some way wrong, as with

“A woman’s place is in the home,” so the old saying goes. Not any more. These days it is not uncommon to find women heading the boards of huge corporations or even leading countries. Equality is sought everywhere, whether it be the workplace or the home, and the roles of men and women are fast becoming interchangeable. Patriarchal attitudes of past ages are no longer acceptable or ‘politically correct’, and we endeavour to root them out wherever they may be found.

But there is one area where the move toward female

Perhaps one of the most poignant sufferings in society is the failure of human relationships. Recent government statistics reveal that some fifty percent of marriages are ending in divorce. Every day four thousand children call the charity Childline for help. All around us we can all see so many examples of strained and collapsed relationships, possibly even in our own lives. We so much want to enjoy our relationships, but so often they become instead the cause of our greatest pain.

What is the solution? Is it just an inevitable sign

“It is by the goodness of God that we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practise either of them,” wrote Mark Twain. Wise words from the esteemed author, although it seems that some of us may well doubt their wisdom. So it was in Denmark last month, where – in the name of the popular ideal of free speech – a number of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed were published, to the great chagrin of the Muslim community.

In many