You can email me at duskglow@gmail.com or Aggie at purplehymnal@gmail.com.

Darcy Dropout writes:

I have enjoyed your posts & blogs.
I esp. like the one about “blow the horn let Brian hear for dog’s day is now at hand.”

I created a verse & chorus of song parody which you might enjoy.
It is directed towards ministurds who are still in b/c they want their pensions.

(to the tune of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”)

I SAW him today a fellaSHIPpin’
Basket of money in his HAND
He was practiced at the art of some GYPpin’
With his CLOTH … he was “Healin’ MAN”

You can’t always QUIT when ya WA-ANT
You can’t always QUIT when ya WA-ANT
You can’t always QUIT when ya WA-ANT
But if you TRY sometimes
You might just FIND
Ya quit herbie’s CREED

You have my permission to reprint this anywhere.

Darcy Dropout (dropout from the wcg)

Dave writes:

Russ -

Just want to say I love your site and hope you come out on the other side, happy.

I am an atheist Jew who never heard of Weinland until about a month ago. Raised Jewish, spent a little time born again, which turned me to atheism 30 years ago, more or less. But through it all, I will always be Jewish to many people, and in many ways to myself. There’s a lesson for you there.

I have read only a small fraction of your posts, though I have read a lot. You are very prolific, my friend. You have skirted on my basic theory of religion, but never stated it outright (in what I have read).

So I thought I would put it down as succinctly as possible….

Religion developed as man gradually developed his brain, and start to ask the big questions – where did we come from, why are we here, and what happens when we die? That’s it. Some smart guys eventually decided they could make a shell, or a sheckel, or eventually a buck or two, by marketing this to the sheep of the world, and shazam, world chaos has now ensued.

The answers to the big questions are, of course -

1) We’re here. That’s the one thing we know for sure. If we weren’t here we wouldn’t ask the question, so don’t worry about it. As a corollary for the religious ones, you have to answer where god came from anyway, so don’t poo-poo my rationale.

2) We’re here to survive, reproduce, make more of us, and that’s it. It’s a sobering thought if you were brought up thinking there was a larger plan or reason, and I’ll admit as I move into my 50s it can be depressing. I try not to dwell on it and having a comfortable life and great (4th) wife, things are really pretty good.

3) Dirt nap or spread on the wind. Sorry, that’s it. My dad died last November and I can still feel his hug and his “My little Davey” in his Alzheimers’ induced stupor over the last couple of years. That’s him living after death, in my memory. That’s all, folks.

I’ll keep reading as much of your stuff as I can – and rooting for you. And here’s hoping you can help some others.

Dave in Ormond Beach, Florida… as close to paradise as there is.