Today I was in the center of Melbourne and I saw two stands run by Muslims advocating their faith. They had a selection of DVDs and brochures to give away and seemed friendly enough for anyone who wanted a chat. I think that this is a good thing, if the majority of the Australian population would think of the Muslim minority as people who give away DVDs rather than as potential suicide bombers then it would be a great benefit for society. Then I saw a Christian stand which had placards indicating that Jesus loves Muslims, which is fine. One of the workers on that stand then gleefully told me that there had been a Muslim stand in that area but the Muslims departed when they arrived. It would be good if advocates for the various religions could work together to promote positive things that they all agree on (generally related to being nice to other people). When they seem to be essentially bullying other religious groups into leaving the area they aren t making a good case for a kind and caring god. The Christian who was so happy about the Muslims departing then tried to convert me. He started by talking about a mobile phone not being able to appear from nothing which was the start of an utterly stupid argument about creationism. That was stupid firstly because it s obvious that evolution doesn t apply to consumer electronics, if I leave a phone lying on top of another phone overnight I m not going to get some little phones appearing as a result. But the bigger stupidity is in even promoting creationism in the first place. Advocating creationism is essentially claiming that god is so incapable that ze can t manage an evolutionary process. An all-seeing all-knowing god of infinite intelligence could just create a plasma cloud that will form into a solar system and evolve life. People who argue for creationism don t believe in a capable god, they believe in a being that resembles a god in the way a magician resembles someone who can actually perform magic. Arguing for creationism is arguing for a limited being which probably isn t worthy of worship (why worship space aliens who are probably only a few thousand years ahead of us). Regardless of the scientific evidence (which is strongly in favor of evolution) just logically thinking about the issue in regard to what a being with infinite powers might actually do suggests that ze could just as easily create or evolve all life and probably wouldn t care about what we believe. Genesis should be taken as metaphor because it s obvious that nothing that s taught in a year 7 science class could be taught to your typical stone age goat-herd, but even if it was taken literally it s not specified as a required belief (as opposed to a belief in a single god, repenting sins, and other beliefs which are required). The greatest stupidity however is the fact that even if it made any sense to promote creationism it wouldn t make sense to do so immediately. Any time you want to convert someone to a set of beliefs it s a good strategy to start with the ones which will seem least wacky. I can have have a conversation with Christians about positive things which we generally agree on such as donating to charity and trying to do good things in various ways. But when they start with the stupid stuff I walk away. When the weather is better I plan to interview representatives of the various religious groups who are trying to convert people on the street and rate them according to how wacky they are. I ll be a little limited in my ability to review them by the total lack of any right to free speech in Australia (our laws are much the same as those in the UK). But I should still be able to give them a reasonable review.

Terah, Jacob, and I went camping last weekend. Terah had asked me what I wanted for Father's Day. I thought for just a second, and said "camping!" She looked like she regretted asking. But it has been a year since our last camping trip, so off we went.

We went to Marion County Park and Lake, a nice park built by FDR's CCC program in the 1930s. It is on the National Register of Historic Places thanks to all the stone buildings, bridges, etc. that were built back then and still survive.

The reason we like it is because one side of the lake has the park office, rentable meeting houses, RV hookups, a swimming area, and really all the things you expect at a park like this (albeit on a small scale). The other side of the lake has gravel roads and fire rings. No power, no running water, but the occasional stone outhouse every half mile or so. Which means that the RV owners are not going to want to spend the night on that side of the lake. So, unlike far too many parks, it is possible to pitch a tent a good distance from the RVs. It's so annoying to go to camping and find it to be noisier than home because of all the TVs and generators running.

Jacob wasn't so sure about the first evening, but he was having a blast all day Saturday. His favorite thing was the campfire. He called it "fie" (rhymes with "buy"). He watched me gathering up brush and preparing the fire, carefully placing the small sticks first, then the big ones. So he picked up a small stick, and carefully laid it inside the fire ring, too. Then he'd watch me light the fire, or blow on some embers, and he'd blow on it, too. Fffffffffffffff! As hard as he could. At one point, I was kneeling next to the fire ring, inspecting the kindling. Terah noticed Jacob kneeling next to the fire ring on the other side, with the exact same posture and expression as I had. It was a perfect Father's Day, I think.

Once the fire got going, he'd walk up towards it, say "HA!" (hot), and then run away. Educational, this camping business. He now knows what "hot" is all about.

Jacob also loved the lake. We would walk the few feet down to the beach, and he'd (holding on to one of us) walk just far enough into it to get his feet covered by the water, then pick up sand and throw it into the water to watch it splash. Or, he'd point at a boat ("bope") in the water ("wah") going past, all excited -- Bope! Bope!!! BOPE!!!

One of my favorite things while camping is sitting outside and watch the sun set. Terah and I did that while munching on banana boats we cooked in the fire (a banana and chocolate concoction that you sort of melt in tinfoil). Or we could sit in the shade on the ground and just relax and enjoy the scenery.

Terah didn't say that she enjoyed camping, but she did agree that there were good times and we could come back. Woohoo, I guess.

We're not really camping pros, and we learned a few things. One is that it would be nice to not have three meals in a day that require a fire. I'm fine with eating fruit, canned stuff, and other no-cooking-needed stuff when camping, but Terah likes more traditional food. And that's fine, and we had some great stuff to eat, but building fires is hard and hot work.

Over the first few days after we got home, Jacob came up to me and said, looking rather sad, "Fie? Fie?" I said, "Jacob, we don't have a fire here. There is no fire here." He would look so sad, and just repeat to himself for a few minutes, "No fie. No fie. No fie." So I asked him if I should build a little fire. "Yeah!" So I got a match and lit a candle. Oh, was that exciting, and almost as soon as it showed up, he tried to blow on it. By today he has learned how to blow out a candle.

A great Father's Day for sure, but we hadn't really tried to sow the seeds of a fascination with fire on the trip.