A useless activity.  Here we go:  The most useless activity right now, at least in our country, seems to be any attempt at moving people from the expressed or subliminal belief, that in the end God will provide the answers to all of our problems.  At least one astute commentator has pointed out that perhaps the main reason that environmental issues played not part in the last election is that a majority of the people in this country take the Bible literally, including belief in the rapture, when, as the Jews all go up in flames, every good Christian’s problems will be solved, and the earth will probe to be a place of endless bounty for all who have passed the test.  Even if people are not that extreme, how else to explain our inability to stop the environmental waste and degradation?  We have the means, just not the will.  Try talking to these folks.  I have.  I used to let the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the house just to have these conversations.  Needless to say, if I were to state that there is pretty good evidence that the earth is more than 5,000 years old, they would smile and point to the passage in scripture where it says it is not.  It is useless talking to these people.

I don’t think shoveling sand is useless, or tying knots all day, or painting a house even though you know that it will have to be done again in 5 years.  Most tedious labor is good.  A kid trying to fill in the ocean with sand at the beach is certainly not engaged in a useless activity.  But telling someone that the gas burning in their Hummer came from Saudi Arabia and then trying to get them to connect the dots between the Hummer, Bush, and Bin Laden?  Now that is a useless activity.  At least it has been.  I suppose we must try though.