Funeral Notice: "Doolberry's Driftwood's" Demise

Friends,
As a result of being invited and elevated to membership of the blog" Like a Two- Stroke", I am putting my blog "Doolberry's Driftwood" permanently to bed, to rest, to float in suspended animation in cyberspace. Self- immolation of the noblest kind.
If it is your pleasure, log on to www.likeatwostroke.blogspot. com, to renew your conversation with yours truly, The Dool, but more delightfully with Mark, The Two-Stroke, the blog creator and head honcho.
Signing off,
The Dool

Estivation time

Pat and I will be off to Iowa later this week for 3 weeks. Pat will be teaching 2 courses at the Body Wisdom School of Massage in Des Moines. Due to our not having a laptop, this blog will therefore not have any new posting from me during that period. I am putting it into estivation.
Hibernation of animals is a winter phenomenon. Estivation ( or aestevation), from latin aestes for summer, is a summer phenomenon.
Some years back in Iowa, I remember someone at church commenting that the drop in church attendance, vitality and activity in summer was a pity, but was inevitable in such a climate where the prolonged winter brought about somewhat of a human hibernation, followed by the need for a hectic summertime of work and play. I remember thinking that the church, or at least this congregation, paradoxically was one of the few organisms that hibernate in summer, i.e. estivate, in the very season when the mission of the church was perhaps easiest to achieve : to "walk" with Jesus on the highways and byways; to go to all nations; to put on the "sandals" of the Gospel; to sow seeds; to aid the sick, the widows, the poor, ....
Spending summer in a state of drowsiness or torpor with a slowing down or cessation of activity and metabolism describes estivation in animals. It is usually to avoid high temperatures or extreme dryness. Relatively uncommon in the animal world compared to hibernation, estivation is a feature of the lives of a few animals including some insects, a few snails, amphibia such as some salamanders and frogs/toads, and some fish such as the Lungfish of Africa.
As its pond or lake dries up in the dry hot savanna summer, the Lungfish digs into the hardening mud creating a type of cocoon where it can remain alive, with a minimal metabolic rate, until the drought is over even if this be a number of years hence. A fish out of water will surely die rapidly, but the extraordinary lungfish is adapted to get enough oxygen for a very low metabolic rate while imprisoned in its mud cell, which can only be broken out of when softened by the next spring rains.
I bet many people feel much more alive in cold winters than in energy-sapping, humid summer
To avoid the "hibernating" effect of winter and its woes, some become "snow geese" and flee the winter for the sun of Florida, Texas and Arizona particularly. I have learned since coming to Monterey, California, that this area, with its mediterranean type of climate with dry summers in the 60s and 70s, is likewise sought by many in the summer, to avoid the torpid, sapping heat and humidity of their home area. They avoid the estivating effect of the home climate by migrating out here. In the fashion of their winter geese counterparts, is there a suitable name for these reverse snow geese : "summer salamanders", "torpid toads" ?

Scatology 401 Blow-outs

Please see "Scatology 101, 201 and 301 for prior basic information.

"Blow-out Complications of Chronic Constipation"
A certain amount of voluntary "straining at stool" is normal for the act of defecation, but not the superhuman efforts, we all know of, required for the constipated "sinkers" of the average western low fiber diet.
Dr Denis Burkitt was the pioneer epidemiological researcher who first publicised the association of high fiber diet of 3rd-world rural Africans with their relative absence of the common diseases of western peoples on low fiber diet, namely : colon cancer, appendicitis, gall bladder stones and a group of conditions, which I call "Blow-outs" : hiatal hernia, diverticulosis, anal hemerrhoids and varicose veins of the legs.
At least part of the etiology of these 'blow-out", pressure -related conditions, is thought to be the chronic constipation and stooling habits of western people. In these folks, to achieve a defecation of hard sticky "sinkers", strong and prolonged straining at stool is needed to raise the intra-abdominal pressure abnormally high to aid the natural peristalsic pressure of the colon moving the contents downstream, and to supplement the normal adequate reflex muscular action of the lower rectum and perianal muscles.
An effect of this vastly increased intra-abdominal pressure, if a frequent and chronic occurence, is the development of "blow-outs" at those anatomical areas where the intra-abdominal cavity and organs have weaker spots, most susceptible to high pressure stimulus.
One can "blow-out upwards", which is the case in "Hiatal Hernia". The esophagus passes from the thoracic cavity into the abdominal cavity through an opening, the hiatus, in the diaphragm.
This lower end of the esophagus has sphincter musculature, which opens to permit swallowed food to pass into the stomach, then closes to its resting state to prevent reflux or regurgitation of food back into the esophagus, except when required, as in vomiting. Reflux causes so-called "heartburn" pain due to the esophagus reacting to the hydrochloric acid and acidity of stomach contents, to which the stomach linin ( mucosa), is insensitive. Increased belching/burping ( eructation), also results from loss of function of this sphincter.
Gradually the hiatus opening is widened and the upper stomach herniates through into the thoracic cavity with increased symptoms of the conditions of "Hiatal Hernia", "Gastro-esophageal Reflux Disease" (G.E.R.D.), known colloquially as Heartburn, Gas, Dyspepsia, Reflux, etc.
Chronic constipation may lead to "outward blow-outs" causing formation of diverticula of the colon. These are small, blind pockets, like little balloons, which the increased intraluminal pressure inside the colon pushes out at weak spots along the colon, resulting in the condition of "Diverticulosis". With time, retained stool may result in inflammation and infection ("Diverticulitis), with now, the very serious possibility of abscess formation, perforation into the abdominal cavity and peritonitis.
"Hemerrhoids" is also an "outward blowout" condition. This is, of course a very common problem, well known to most westeners. The lowermost part of the rectum, or anal canal, has large veins close to the surface. With chronic constipation, the back-pressure into
the lower abdominal and leg veins is vastly increased. With time, similar to the formation of diverticula, this may cause varicose enlargement and billowing out of the perianal veins into the lumen of the analcanal, taking the path of least resistance, creating internal hemerrhoids. These are usually uncomfortable, if not painful and liable to bleed with passage of hard "sinkers". With further growth these anal varicosed hemerrhoids may be long enough to prolapse out of the anus. Multiple treatments by injection, banding and a variety of surgical excision techniques are available, but nobody enjoys anal surgery and the messy post-op care of rear-end procedures.
An external hemerrhoid is differentiated from its internal cousin, by its more obvious situation originating at the very outer edge of the anus and usually acutely painful. It is very easily felt, when wiping, feeling like a grape or raisin, which if ignored, will in time shrink to be a now painless, persistent "anal tag".
Varicose veins of the legs are multi-factorial in origin, but are usually "blowouts downward" from increased venous blood pressure in the leg veins secondary to the raised intra-abdominal pressure of chronic constipators. As is well known, arterial blood is actively moved to the body tissues by the beating heart's pumping pressure, but has to be returned passively to the heart in the veins without the aid of any pressure from the pumping heart. Arterial blood pressure is dissipated in the capillary beds before blood collects again in venules leading to veins and hence back to the heart. Gravity and outside pressure from muscular contraction compressing veins, combined with a competent system of serial one-way valves in veins, creates the venous flow and return of blood back to the heart. It is not surprising, then, that being erect beings, the leg veins already faced with an uphill anti- gravity flow problem, might be easily susceptible to any increased venous back -pressure problems causing dilatation, or varicosing, of veins. Venous valves are of a semi-lunar flap type, flattening to the wall to enable onward flow , and flapping out to meet the opposite wall and thus close the vein lumen preventing any backflow, should the back-pressure temporarily be greater than the forward -pressure. However, with the permanent stretching and weakening of the leg vein wall under increased back-pressure, the vein diameter increases and local valves are no longer effective or "competent" . This process happens irregularly at the weakest points of the surface leg veins, producing the characteristic irregular pattern of "varicose veins". Not of cosmetic appeal, but more importantly, bad for circulation resulting in swelling of the lower legs, risk of vein inflammation (phlebitis) and vein blood clots (venous thrombosis), poor skin circulation and leg ulcers. Constant movement of the legs, periodic elevation and the wearing of compression hose knee-high or thigh-high are some of the useful preventative and treatmend measures.
The straining of delivering multiple babies and years of occupational standing with little leg movement are common contributing factors to varicose vein development.
Not of concern to us in this Scatology study, but of interest are these and other types of abdominal herniae related, at least in part, to chronic constipation and raised intra-abdominal pressure : this list includes groin (inguinal and femoral) herniae and bellybutton (umbilical) hernia.
When squatting on the ground to have a B.M., a la primitive man, and as is still the need in present-day rural cultures without outhouses, restrooms, etc., the veins leading into the upper thighs, the Femoral veins, are effectively flexed and compressed thus temporarily preventing any deleterious transmission of increased abdominal venous pressure down to the leg veins.
If you buy this blow-out notion, then the important pearl of this blog is that you need: firstly, to change diet to cure chronic constipation, and secondly, to at least minimise back- pressure effects by adding a step-stool to your restroom furniture, strategically placed at the foot of the stool, so as to force you to recreate an effective femoral vein-obstructing squat as you sit on the stool with feet elevated on a step-stool.
So much for the blow-out pressure effects of chronic constipation.
At least remember to :
" Be a sinker not a floater", and
"Take a stool to the stool to have a stool"

Scatology 301

Why is "the restroom" so named?
What synonym do you use for this most essential room : toilet; bathroom; the ladies room (or gents); lavatory; loo; W.C.; the potty?
I grew up with the acronym PK of universal usage in Southern Africa and derived from "Picannini Kia", which is pigeon Zulu --also called Chilapalapa. The PK in the bush and on the farm was usually an Outhouse similar to that of US history, and I suspect a universal design. The substitute potty for night and bad weather use was ubiquitous.
You will know that before waterborne sewage systems came, it was the custom in many European towns, for the contents of the potty, the nightsoil, to be thrown out onto the street in the a.m., sometime into a kerbside ditch with flowing water. In China, the nightsoil is still used in some rural areas to fertilise the lands.
Of course, the most ancient way was to squat on bare ground. In the most primitive African wilds-- absent roads, power, sewage systems and other trappings of civilization-- it was often not convenient to get a "call of nature", especially at night. During the day, one can usually leave the footpath and easily, nearby in the bush, behind a bush, find a hidden, safe, thornless, sufficiently bare few square inches of ground. Experience teaches one which leaves are most suitable as natural "toilet paper" to gather on the way. Night-time potty times have special problems.
Aerial photos of African tribal villages easily reveal the characteristic pattern of timeworn footpaths radiating out from each village consisting of the few adjacent huts of a number of famiies and without toilets or outhouses. You can easily understand that, in the dark of night, few will venture far along a path or leave it in order to answer a call of nature. So, walking in the African bush, which is of necessity on these ubiquitous footpaths, could expose one to a special hazard of the African footpath ,in addition to the expected thorns, ticks and snakes, etc . Fortunately, the very high fiber stools from the staple largely vegetarian diet of corn, millet,yams or cassava,etc.,in this part of the 3rd world, are usually not odoriferous and are rapidly gobbled up by dung beetles,etc, or decay and disappear from microbial decomposition rapidly within a day or two in such a tropical climate.
Sociological scatological observations were not missed by "Fiber man" Dr. Denis Burkett, British missionary doctor and surgeon in East Africa, famous for his pioneering epidemiological work on diet. He noted the association of high fiber diet in these parts with the absence of many of the very common diseases of the western world largely on a low fiber diet, e.g. constipation, diverticulitis, gall bladder problems, hiatal hernia, colon cancer etc.
Jonathon Swift, Irish author of "Gulliver's Travels, must have been an observant walker around Dublin in the 17th century, because he too made scatological observations, studied and published an illustrated paper on the stool characteristics of the local population.
The universal outhouse was obviously a great progress in human development, with its "longdrop" pit design, a box to sit on and screening of some kind.
Still, however, with a hazard factor from its backyard siting and the snakes, spiders and other bugs now provided a new habitat. But for the first time, one could "rest" there.
Then came the indoor waterborne systems of the modern age. Primitively, just a hole in the floor, then with a seat, pan or stool and a gravity fed water system.
Originally employing a water tank, holding a few gallons of water, fixed about headhigh on the back wall with a release chain to pull; nowadays a china or enamel container with a lever to work the valve water releasing machanism and an automatic floating- ball type of water inflow faucet shutoff. My good wife, Pat, out of childhood habit, still bellows to a sometimes forgetful husband, "Dave, have you pulled the chain?" Embarrassing.
No excuses, Dolberry, but perhaps, in the modern restroom, we might tend to flush less immediately, and therefore is more likely to forget about it? Are we so intent on getting to the washbasin to "wash hands", an unforgiveable ritual to forget?( Yet, how often does our "paper technique" fail? How much "super-bug" highly-antibiotic resistance are we fostering by excessive paranoid washing with the totally unnecessary anti-biotic soaps?) I bet, however, even the most enlightened of us, are as fastidious and as ritualized as I am when it comes to toilet habits.
Perhaps ,also, is it to get to the inevitable restroom mirror that we are distracted to, to examine the tiny new skin bump we discovered with all the "resting' time required by our constipation?
Don't get me wrong. Proper toilet hygiene is needed and vital to prevent spread of E.coli, Hepatitis A and other fecal-borne diseases.
What a boon is the modern restroom. It's no longer a luxury. Why wonder why the loo in America is always in a room with a washbasin, and the bath/shower?. In the world of British influence, the lav was never in the bathroom and usually without a handbasin. Do we Americans smugly suspect the British therefore wash hands post- pulling-the-chain less than we do?
Not to confuse you any more, but the continental bidet has always puzzled me. What room is it in and what's it for?
Like me, do you wonder what the person is going for, who excuses himself to go to the bathroom : for a No.1, a No.2, to wash or to have a bath? None of your business, you might say, unless you are in the queue to follow. To "rest"? If so: from what? I can think of many reasons : for peace and quiet; to hide away in solitude protected by the unviolable unwritten law of "do not disturb when "engaged"; to guzzle in private a candy bar that would otherwise have to be shared with siblings; meditation and prayer; undisturbed reading time, etc.
Undoubtedly, all of us are very thankful for the privacy of the single stall lockable restroom. Public restrooms of multiple stall type and limited privacy are not our favorite places.
It seems to be a universal that we have a natural and very normal interest in and acceptance of our own stools and bowel habits, as being "ok". But the same attitude does not apply to the scatological characteristics and habits of other persons (mothers of babies excluded).
All in all, thank heavens for the modern restroom
I recommend you see Scatology 401 to learn what we lost when we no longer had to squat for a BM; when we could sit on the stool in order to have a stool.

Know Then Thyself

Have you ever been tortured by having to make a choice : A fence-sitter; caught on the horns of a dilemma; frozen at a fork in the road; paralysed by indecision; confused; tossed to and fro by every whim?
Are these descriptions of me alone? Nay, uncertainty must be the constant companion of all who are honest and those who, perhaps vainly, yearn for truth and certainty and to know one's self. Absent that, and, if so trapped, then oh, how we long for at least a measure of boldness: to take a stand; to jump in the deepend of indecision; to put on the table whatever cards we have been dealt with, and stick with that.
What do you think of Pope's words? Enlighten me you students of poetry :


THE RIDDLE OF THE WORLD

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast;
In doubt his mind and body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.
ALEXANDER POPE

And Shakespeare's :

"Boldness be my friend,
And arm me audacity."
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE in "Cymbeline"

Scatology 201

Are you a floater or a sinker?
A floater is a person who has floaters.
Floaters are the product of a diet high in fiber and sinkers of a less-healthy lower fiber diet. I bet all of us have experienced, at the extreme floater end of the spectrum of stool consistency, diarrhea illnesses with frequent, extremely watery, soft stools. The transit time is so fast that there is insufficient time to digest and absorb nutrients in the food and to reabsorb water, which is the main function of the colon (large intestine).Therefore, resulting in watery stools with a risk of dehydration acutely and malnutrition chronically.
In contrast, normal bowel habits are achieved only with sufficient insoluble plant fiber and water in the diet, producing a transit time of about 1 to 2 per day of semi-formed, soft, more gassy, moister and more bulky stool, which tends to float, or at least not to be a "cannonball" sinker. With floater consistency, peristalsic waves of intestinal muscle contraction are most effective in advancing the intestinal contents. The distension stimulus of bulkier stool in a fuller rectum, the lowermost storage section of the colon, results in more efficient anal sphincter muscle relaxation to enable defecation to occur more easily. Thus minimal or no conscious extra straining is needed to raise the intra-abdominal pressure for an extra "push". Therefore, less time of occupancy, no need for books in the toilet and less risk of developing painful and annoying hemorrhoid problems and the other complications of chronic constipation.
At the other extreme to diarrhea, is the sinker condition, or constipation, which is, out of ignorance, regarded by many westeners to be "normal". Sinkers are low in water content, drier, harder, stickier, less malleable, more dense and more formed stool. Thus making it much more difficult for natural peristalsic bowel and anal muscle function and requiring conscious straining to aid defecation. In western water-borne toilet pans, these high density scats rapidly sink, hence the term sinkers.
Interestingly, many mammals that are totally vegetarian with diets of massive fiber content, produce very dry, hard characteristically shaped dung without suffering from constipation problems, to my knowledge. The very dry grains of mice, pellets of rabbits,"apples" of horses, and huge rolls of elephants, etc., would be sinkers to humans reflecting significant constipation. Any vets., or other scatologists, out there to enlighten me?
It is the puttylike, sticky hard stool of sinkers, along with excesive toilet tissue, that can result in the most embarrassing desperate search in the bathroom for a plunger to relieve an obstruction. As you will know, this tool has to be immediately available, otherwise overflow is almost inevitable. Very unlikely to happen to a floater, though he may have to flush more than once to remove all trace of a stool and leave crystal clear water in the pan.
It is important to distinguish insoluble from soluble fiber, both of which are only of plant origin. The former is indigestible plant cellulose and therefore the anti-constipation type of fiber that I have been promoting above. Cellulose, which is the main structural substance of plant cell walls and the basis of all woody plant tissue, is the most chemically complex carbohydrate and cannot be digested by humans. It is the main component of grain husks and seed coats, e.g whole-grain wheat bread, brown rice; fruit skins and fibers e.g. prunes, citrus; leaves and stems e.g. rhubarb and asparagus; root crops e.g.potatoes,yams, etc.
The need for a high insoluble fiber component in human diet would appear to be primarily for a mechanical purpose and not for energy-supply. However, as you know, there are many herbivorous animals which obtain all their energy from plant matter because they can digest cellulose. All these animals have the necessary cellulose digesting enzymes supplied to them by micro-organisms, such as Protozoa, which live symbiotically in their digestive systems. Some examples are the herbivore mammals, grass-eating earthworms amd wood-eating termites.
Whilst touting insoluble fiber rather than soluble fiber for anti-constipation dietary value, it would be amiss not to mention the significant benefits of soluble fiber nevertheless for other reasons. Insoluble fiber is made of carbohydrates less complex than cellulose and which are digestible substances, such as pectins, gums, agar, etc., abundant in unprocessed legumes,grains, fruits and vegetables. Being complex carbohydrates, they take longer to be digested than simple sugars(the ultimate end-products of all carbohydrate digestion), resulting in slower digestion and absorbtion time with significant human health benefits for diabetes and cholestrol-related diseases, etc.
An important caveat is that a diet with a high increased insoluble fiber content must have an accompanying increased water intake to avoid the paradoxical constipating effect due to a now lower relative water content. Other than an increased volume of flatus, albeit of benign type, the only other side-effect of a high insoluble fiber diet to watch for, would be in people with low calcium problems, who are taking large quantities of bulk commercial insoluble fiber, such as pure wheat bran. The exaggerated amount of Phytic Acid in such concentrated, undiluted insoluble fiber may then significantly decrease calcium absorption from the diet.
Is the obviously longer time needed to defecate in western-diet peoples the correct derivation of the word "restroom"? ( To be continued in Scatology 301, pending)

Scatology 101 2.23.06

Quaking Aspens ( Populus tremuloides)

Not to be confused with the Birches is the similar Aspen/ Cottonwood/ Poplar (Populus) genus of trees. Especially birchlike is the Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides), a ubiquitous tree of much of the Rockies and the higher elevations of the American West. So aptly named from its pendant leaves tremulous in the slightest breeze. Its magnificent fall golden-yellow leaf color is well shown in the photo. The bark is smooth and chalky-white to yellow-green and without the peeling or cross-stripes of the similar looking Paper birch (Betula papyrifera), often growing in the same habitat, but extending more northerly in New England, Canada and Alaska. The peeling bark character of this latter species was used by Native Americans for canoe coverings.

Birches (genus Betula)

One of the loveliest trees of the Northern Hemisphere Forests is the birch, botanical name Betula. Probably best known of a number of species, especially grown in gardens and cities, is the European White birch (Betula pendula) with glossy white bark, black-fissured at the bole, and pendant branches and twigs.
This birch is very characteristic of vast areas of forest in Poland, Eastern Europe and Russia.
I was delighted to discover Robert frost's poem "Birches". When last we visited our son John and his family, who live in Poland, John and I tried to "swing birches" as best we could from the description of this in the poem. We could not emulate the feat or have the obvious fun of Frost's youth.
Here is the poem :

BIRCHES
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree~
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

It is so important to know what we believe, what is our philosophy of life, what is our worldview. In which of the three categories are we camped : Believer, Atheist or Agnostic?
Michael Novak recently wrote, illuminatingly to me, in his article "The Truth about Religous Freedom", in the 'First Things' March 206 No.161 issue, while commenting on the moral crisis prompted in the West by the rise of secularism.

I quote :
"Atheism and agnosticism at first seem benign, for many who embrace them go on living almost as if they were still religious, according to civilized values of the religious past, with mercy, charity, compassion, and the other high qualities. Sometimes they seem even more moral than religious people of their own generation.
Atheism, however, may be a position of passionate commitment, but it cannot be a position of reason. No man knows enough about the conditions of of existence to know for certain that there is no God.
For this reason, too, agnosticism seems like a more tenable intellectual position, and a more plausibly and attractively moral position as well. It seems modest and humble, open and thoughtful. There seems much in agnosticism to admire.
Still theory is one thing and practice is another. Agnosticism may be attractive as a theory, because of its modesty, but in practice human beings cannot be so neutral. In practice, we must live as though God exists or as though God does not exist. Which of these practical roads agnostics choose to follow makes a great difference in their actual conduct. A mind open to God tends to be open to many arguments, that to one who lives as though there is no God are likely to seem dim and obscure. A purely secular society living as if there is no God tends to value individual liberty before any other good. This preference is proposed as public policy on the grounds that it is the most democratic principle, and on the grounds that all other policies are more dangerous threats against democracy. But this preference cannot be long maintained without falling into impossible contradictions.
For instance, the individual woman who chooses to have an abortion may seem to be exercising a fundamental human right of choice and thus, by reason of various complexities of her own life, even be entitled to our sympathies. Still, her choice necessarily demands the destruction of another individual life, that of the infant in formation in the womb, significantly different from hers. In this way, secularism ends up not treating all individuals as equal. Rather, it privileges some human individuals more than others.
In addition, secularism ends up destroying a fundamental principle of democracy, in the process of boasting that it alone protects democracy. For in granting the more powerful party (the individual woman) the right to exercise violence to destroy the weaker party (the infant in the womb), it privileges might over right. But it is the fundamental democratic principle, its very foundation, to privilege right over might. Secularism thus ends up, in its moral self-contradictions, destroying what it claims to love above all : democracy and pluralism. And abortion is not the only instance of this self-contradiction.
The greatest danger of secularism is that it steadily undercuts natural law, moral reason and religion - in the name of privileging personal preference, taste, and selection. It tends first toward moral relativism and then begins sliding toward moral nihilism. There remains little or nothing in the moral arsenal of secularism to slow a cultural tendency toward decadence or to empower a wave of moral awakening. Mesmerized by the glowing attraction of the individual as the central unit of moral analysis - together with the elevation of personal preference over objective reason and the priority of of will over intelligence - secularism tends to hold that moral truth cannot be grasped by the human mind. All there is to rely on is personal preference. In matters of social conflict, then, it is inexorable that power must become the ultimate adjudicating force.
Total decadence fortunately takes time on the slippery road of decline due to the slow drag on it by tradition and cultural inhibition, which save us for a time.
It would seem that secularism is a most unsure basis for democratic survival. Indeed for democracy to thrive, it does not need to be based on secularism.
What the West calls secularism is in fact in large measure a heavy draw on the religious heritage of Christian-Judaeo religion. That is the deepest source of current liberal ideas of liberty, fraternity, equality, compassion and progress. In fact, it is more owing to the specifically Christian values of the past that Communism was decisively defeated e.g. Solidarity, the Polish lsbor union and other dissidents who at last refused to be complicit in the Soviet regime of the lie. Both Fascism and Communism were based on false, inadequate philosophies under which it proved impossible for humans to live. Thus, even contemporary secularism owes its current peaceful thriving to to the recent victory over its deadly enemies, Fascism and Marxism, by the religions (and their morality of nature and reason) that it despises.
In order for democracy to thrive, it does not need to be based on secularism. In fact, secularism would seem to be a most unsure basis for democratic survival."

See www.firstthings.com