A Place for Atheists in Heaven September 2, 2009March 16, 2017 MEDICARE FOR ALL It’s cheaper and the outcomes are better. Watch. HIGH-RISE FIRE RESCUE It’s hard to imagine an evacuation quite so relaxed and orderly, but this two-minute video is pretty much the opposite of that Steve McQueen heart-stopper, Towering Inferno. MATTHEW AND HEALTH CARE Dr. Joel Wesson: “Just in case you do not have enough to read, Help by Garrett Keizer is an extended exploration of the parable of the good Samaritan. What I got out of it was that the mercy that the Samaritan performs one time has to become the justice of a real health care system if he started finding a man beaten on the highway every five miles or every day. And that by the same logic, the justice of the health care system is a merciful act. The reason I to talk about mercy and justice is the passage from one of the Prophets, ‘Love mercy, do justice, and wait humbly on (for) your God,’ as a prescription for right living.” John Grund: “Regarding your Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 columns: John L. writes: ‘When one stands before God on that final day, it would probably be unwise to tell Him that the Government has taken over all that charity stuff and that you paid your taxes to support it.’ On the other hand, answering, ‘I worked for years – organizing, contributing, knocking on doors, talking to my neighbors – to help bring my country a fair, effective and efficient health care system for all,’ might just go over pretty well. I don’t think Ted Kennedy earned any demerits for his work for health care over the years. In a democracy, government is whatever we decide to do together. If there are any areas that should be off-limits to working on together, we pretty much decide that, too. So if a majority supports health care reform – which it seems they do – I think we should get it. And if a majority supports a public insurance option – just as it has supported public utilities and public universities to complement the private approaches – it deserves to have that, too.” Abe: “Someone once said that he would rather spend all of his life believing in God and then die and discover there was no one, than spend all of his life believing there was no God and then die and find out that there was one. Think on that. The bet is pretty easy to make if you do the thinking.” ☞ If there is a god, let alone one who keeps track of your good deeds and bad deeds, I have a feeling that nonbelievers who voted to help the less fortunate will make out even better than believers who did not.