You are one good thinker! I appreciate your comments and particularly: why is the universe the way it is and what does it mean. This is, in fact, the question that drives humans forward.

To say that religion and science are polar opposites, as stated by Viva, is to perpetuate the myths of The Fall and that of Progress that rival each other to the detriment of all.

Religion was born out of a need to understand the world based on early observation of such things as the birth of a child, the behaviour of animals, weather patterns and the movement of the planets. It is particularly this last observation that gave rise to the concept of one god directing the cosmos. The explanation of god was the most appealing to early civilizations based on the information and tools available to them at the time.

As our knowledge and use of tools (telescopes in this case) grew, our understanding of the cosmos changed. If it weren't for Copernicus and Galileo, we could very well still believe that the sun revolves around the earth. Yet even Galileo had to recant to avoid being burned at the stake.

Whether by intelligent design or intelligent by nature, I think we could agree that there is an inherent intelligence at work on this planet and human beings are capable of exercising their intelligence in a conscious manner. We figured out how to put a man on the moon and that IS rocket science.

To the editors I would like to say two things: 1. Good for you for initiating a dialogue on such an important issue- Charity. Without it the "less-fortunates" would be even more so. 2. Shame on you for such an inane argument. Your premise and use of logic clearly demonstrate that human intelligence is vulnerable to sloppy thinking.

I will not attempt to argue with the statistics. That would be a futile gesture.

Rather, I concede that theists (god-worshippers) do give more money and time to charitable organizations than atheists do. Then again, god-worshippers have had two thousand years to build up their tradition of giving. It is irrelevant to this discussion what may be their motivation. Atheists have very little history to build up a similar tradition. After all, it's only been a few centuries since they were burned at the stake if they spoke their thoughts out loud.

It would be interesting to see if theists and atheists could bring together their different areas of expertise to form a symbiotic relationship in regards to charity. If this could be accomplished, the world would indeed be a better place for all of us.