I know we should be tolerant of these religious dupes, but sometimes their stubborn refusal to understand the ridiculousness of their beliefs is very frustrating. And yet, when I contemplate how short our lives really are, I occasionally wish I could be so stupid.

I have a great library of books by Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Martine Gardner, Dawkins, Gould, and others, and am in the process of rewriting a treatise (currently at about 50 pages) on Religion, God, Creation, the Bible, the Soul, Prayer, etc.,(quoting liberally from these soureces) which I hope to leave as a legacy for my kids and grandchildren.

I have one question for those Bible-worshipper s who believe literally in the Great Flood of Noah's time. If you were an omnipotent, omniscient diety intent on wiping out the entire himan race, except for a favoured few, why would you use such an awkward device as a flood, with all the attendant problems, - where to get the water, and where to put it afterward. How to get all those pairs of animals on board the ark, with their food, and back home again, And all the undesirable side effects, such as the millions upon millions of innocent animals and birds that had to die in order to get rid of Man, and the drowning of untold millions of trees and plants. A much more efficient and environmentally friendly way for God to accomplish his intended goal would be to unleash a highly contagious, 100% fatal airborn virus, that would wipe out mankind in a few months. Then give Noah and his family the vaccine, say in the milk of their goats. No undesirable side effects, except for a short-term increase in the number of vultures and other scavengers.

Another couple of problems that have bothered my about the biblical story of Naoh. (1)If he was able to build this large boat, it must mean that shipbuilding and sea-faring were commonplace at that time. Surely then some fishermen, noting the rapidly rising waters, would have stocked their fishing boats and put out to sea with their families, and, with lots of fresh water coming down, and their skill at catching fish, they should have had no trouble surviving the flood, just a Noah did. (2) After the flood, all the pairs of animals were returned, somehow, to their natural habitat. On arriving back on the savannah, the pair of lions comes across the pair of zebras, decide they are hungry, and "whoops", there goes the zebra breeding stock.