We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit.

But I could be wrong.

One of the great commandments of science is: 'Mistrust arguments from authority.'

If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone?

I find science so much more fascinating than science fiction. It also has the advantage of being true.

If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.

Few scientists now dispute that today's soaring levels of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere will cause global temperature averages to rise by as much as nine degrees Fahrenheit sometime after the year 2000.