Starting a new book

We've had our usual SE Texas fall weather; cool at night in the lower 60's warming up to 80+ in the afternoon. Perfect. We all remind each other that this is why we love living in Texas, it's worth the 2 unbearably hot months in the summer. I even laid out in the sun for over an hour in a bikini! It was nice to get my beneficial dose of vitamin D.

I started reading a new book a few days ago. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Did you know that Charles Darwin never used the phase survival of the fittest? Here is what Wikipedia says:

Survival of the fittest is a phrase which is a shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied by Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology of 1864, Spencer drew parallels to his ideas of economics with Charles Darwin's theories of evolution by what Darwin termed natural selection.

The phrase is a metaphor, not a scientific description; and it is not generally used by biologists, who almost unanimously prefer to use the phrase "natural selection" exclusively.

Why am I reading Origin of Species? I've read the Bible a couple times all the way through and felt the need to read the other book which changed the way we think about life and it's complexities. So far, I have to say, it makes much better sense than the Bible. The added bonus is there's no blood sacrifices, genocides, rapes, stonings, or dogma is this book. Just science.

There's another email going around that spreads misinformation by using Christianity to bring up intense, hateful emotions. It starts with a photo of several soldiers bowing their heads in prayer with a title that reads "What's wrong with this picture?' The misinformation is that the ACLU is trying to remove GOD from everything and everyplace in America. I urge each of you to go to their website at www.aclu.org and find out what this organization really does for Americans. I'm absolutely sure you will be shocked that a great organization that fights for civil liberties (which includes religious freedom) gets such a bad reputation from conservative Christians. If you don't have the time to find out the truth about the ACLU please don't contribute to nasty emails that spreads lies about something you know nothing about. I was taught by my mother that Christians value the truth but so far, with the spread of this and many other nasty emails about atheists and the ACLU, I can see that this value isn't a virtue anymore. /End of rant.