I Have Faith in Humanity and my Fellow Man

That's what you sometimes hear immediately following some one's reasons for dismissing God's existence ... buttressed with the supporting arguments that religion is man-made, a superstitious invention that's responsible not just for prejudice and intolerance between different faiths ... but also responsible for the deaths of more people than the casualties of all wars combined.

"If we learned to love each other and didn't have religion to divide us, people all over the globe could put their differences aside and focus on peace, understanding and the brotherhood of all mankind. We don't need an imaginary man in the clouds telling us how to live and behave toward one another."

Now I've got a bad case of the heebie jeebies, because unless your definition of humanity is more exclusive than mine, "Humanity" includes the likes of Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler and Pol Pot. And we won't even get started on the Romans' Saturday matinee fare at the Coliseum or discuss Charles Manson, Pee Wee Gaskins, David Berkowitz or Jeffrey Dahmer.

See they're part of Humanity, too ... though Jack the Ripper might've needed some powerful convincing (or at least strong encouragement) to "get out of linear thinking and into the abundant universe."

Do the New Agers really expect me to join the global consciousness? Heck, I can't even scratch my own back, cut my own hair, tie my shoes with one hand ... or even pick up shampoo without buying a bottle of conditioner by mistake. Yet somehow my individual role is essential for "visualizing world peace"?

Dude, Visualize Getting a Grip instead.

That's why I've got a hard time believing that left to itself and given another four or five thousand years on the job, Mankind might get its act together and finally create the Paradise on Earth that New Agers and Humanists promise "is part of our enlightened potential."

Somehow it's easier believing in Start Trek re-runs instead.

Hmmm. Guess that make me part of the problem instead of part of the solution.