You think so?

I'm sorry - I have to apologize in advance - but I can't let this opportunity slip by. We've got the story, the narrative, the evidence, if you will, and then we have the reality. How different they are!

We've got all these people running around ... and I can't help but keep repeating: about half the population of the world, about 3,000,000,000 people who claim to be followers of this Jew born in a non-descript part of the world 2,000 years ago, and yet, there are probably not more than a handful of these folks who actually take him, or what he had to say seriously.

I'm not picking on them, really, after all they're only human. But, I can't help but find a certain fascination in the thought that although they call themselves followers of this particular individual, when it comes right down to it, they want as little to do with him as possible.

Let's be real: who wants to put others first? How realistic is it to turn the other cheek, or love our enemies, or help those who just happen to be around? I mean, what would become of the world anyway? That's a good question. A very good question.

Let's face it: we exchanged our society - our lives, actually - for an economy, and we all know what that means: everybody acts in their own self-interest. Economists have even tried to ease the blow and call it "enlightened" self-interest, but in the end, our world, as we experience it today, is all about, it is only about us. Others have to fend for themselves. We live and move and have our being in the fact that we act in our own self-interest.

I hate to be the one to break it to you all, but it just doesn't work that way. The guy who is the alleged founder of the world's largest, most widespread religion said himself that others are more important than you. If you subscribe to the assertion that we act in our own self-interest - enlightened or not - than you are simply at odds with the boss' own idea of how things ought to be working. This isn't a simple misunderstanding, it's a full-fledged dilemma.

We'll need to take a closer look at this the next time, though. It's too big an issue to take care of here.