If you have always bought shoes at chain stores like Footlocker, Sports Chalet, Dick's Sporting Goods, etc. you might have considered yourself lucky if the salesperson you were dealing with knew a lot about the right shoe for you. On a recommendation from a fellow runner, I recently had a chance to stop by the store for runners, Top to Top, in Marina del Rey. The manager, Chris Barry, asked me take off my shoes and walk up and down the aisles.
After determining that I overpronate, he asked me if I had brand preference (I said, "no") and then brought out four different brands of shoes -- Nike Nucleus, Saucony Pro Grid Stabil, Asics Gel Foundation, and Brooks Adrenaline. He briefed me on the features of each and then advised me to run up and down the street adjoining the store. I settled on the Saucony Pro Grid Stabil and it has made an incredible difference to my running. Did I say, "running"? It feels more like I am cruising. The shoes were expensive -- around $115 -- but every stride in my run makes it all worth it.
It is an interesting commentary on the religious sociology of the U.S. when two myths -- more akin to fairy tales -- are the attention-grabbing headlines in the media. The rituals around Passover and Easter are based on myths and legends that, by most scientific accounts, cannot be verified as fact. And yet again, in another evidence of irrationality, the contents of the Bible are able to dodge factual evidence, even when the incidents involve fantasies like parting of an entire sea and the resurrection of a dead individual, the stuff of fairy tales.
We all know that faith can be personal and therefore, we have laws to protect the rights of the faithful in a democratic society. The legal protection of faith is the last harbour of an individual's right to believe in the irrational and infantile. But in a secular nation, such as the U.S., why does the observance of a single faith trounce every other? Why are the only two religious holidays -- Easter and Christmas -- centered around Christianity? Why not celebrate the birth and resurrection of other prophets of other religions? That would create more holidays for all of us and provide more time for secular humanists to formulate plans to mitigate the undesirable incursion of faith-based religion into our daily lives.
"The legal protection of faith is the last harbour of an individual's right to believe in the irrational and infantile."A quote from Voltaire:
'If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities'
Voltaire
