A couple is golfing one day on a very, exclusive golf course lined with million dollar houses. On the third tee the husband says, "Honey, be very careful when you drive the ball. Don't knock out any windows, it'll cost us a fortune to fix."

The wife tees up and promptly shanks it right through the window of the biggest house on the course. The husband cringes and says, "I told you to watch out for the houses! all right, let's go up there, apologize and see how much this is going to cost."

They walk up and knock, and a voice says, "Come in." When they open the door, they see glass all over the floor and a broken bottle lying on its side in the foyer.

A man on the couch says, "Are you the people that broke my window?"

"Uh, yeah," the husband says. "Sorry about that."

"No, actually I want to thank you. I'm a genie that was trapped for a thousand years in that bottle. You've released me. I'm allowed to grant three wishes - I'll give you each one wish, and I'll keep the last one for myself."

"OK, great!" the husband says. "I want a million dollars a year for the rest of my life."

"No problem - it's the least I could do. And you, what do you want?" the genie says, looking at the wife.

"I want a house in every country of the world," she says.

"Consider it done."

"And what's your wish, Genie?" the husband asks.

"Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle, I haven't had sex with a woman in a thousand years. My wish is to sleep with your wife."

The husband looks at the wife and says, "Well, we did get a lot of money and all those houses, honey. I guess it's OK with me if it's OK with you."

So the genie takes the wife upstairs and ravishes her for two hours. Afterward, he rolls over, looks at the wife, and says,

"How old are you and your husband, I may ask?"

"I am 34 and he is 35. Why?"

"And you still believe in genies?

Today is the 11th day of November 1999. We have 50 days to the next century and the beginning of a new millennium. The technological advancement has made the world so small. The progress has been incredible. Just the other day I read about a plane under construction by the airbus corporation that would carry a 1000 passengers.

Today we travel with airplanes, trains, and private cars. We cook with natural gas, electricity and one of the most important kitchen appliances is the Microwave oven. Everyone has a cell phone and we can reach out and touch someone from anywhere and everywhere. We have increased the human life from an average of 45 years in 1940¹s to 75 years in the 90¹s and a child born next century is expected to live on the average more than 100 years.

The internet has made it possible to contact places we are not able to see. we can sit at our homes and visit Museums in Paris, London and Washington DC. Our daughter sends our little grand daughter¹s pictures over the internet enabling us to participate in her growth and development on a daily basis. We can look up dictionaries, encyclopedias, learn about diseases, and their cures without leaving our homes and at no extra charge. Humans have gone through, ice age, stone age, agricultural age, industrial age, and now the information age but the spiritual side of many of us has been dormant in the stone ages.

However, many of us still believe in an extra ordinary man sitting there some where in the sky and directing our every move. What a busy man he must be? To direct 6 billion people of different ages, sexes, languages, creeds, who are geographically spread all over the globe must be an extremely exhaustive task. Perhaps that is why he goofs constantly and repeatedly.

When I was a child of five or six years of age my grandmother told me stories from the Koran. I am positive you have heard these stories also, since Koran is mostly copied from the old-testament. The story that disturbed me the most was the one about Abraham. Apparently God wanted to test Abraham¹s devotion to him so asks him to sacrifice his son Esmael for God. I used to be terrified thinking what if my father would be tested for his devotion to God? Would he kill me? What if the lamb never showed up? I would have nightmare about it. But then I would think that only boys were to be sacrificed and I would feel good for having been a girl.

I am sure you all have heard the story of the flood and Noah¹s ark. The great God asked, Noah to build a ship and place a pair of each species on his ship to protect them from extinction and then he or the God ordered the flood and drowned all the living. My grandmother would tell me that the people had done wrong. They had not listened to God and this merciful God had to get rid of them so he killed them by one the two most horrifying means, he drowned them. I used to ask, but grandma why did god drowned the animals? I was too young to understand such story was not possible at that time. There are some five thousands species in the animal kingdom. A pair of each will be 10000 animals. Today, we all know the technology was not advanced enough to build such a ship. not possible even today. The largest ship with all our advancement can hold 6,000 people.

Another example, which I am positive we all have heard about and I have problem with is the existence of the God and the Devil. According to Koran, God asked Angel Gabriel to bow to Adam and he refused and God sent him out of the heaven and he became the devil and went into competition with God. Now does God and Devil have the same powers? If not then why doesn¹t God get rid of the devil and if he is unable to do so then the idea of one God is out of the door. Because there are now two of them with equal powers one guiding the good and one guiding the bad and evil.

A recent poll taken by CNN stated that 44% of Christians in America believe that Jesus will come in the next 50 years. and 22% believe that this event will happen on December 31, 99. And if it does not happen on this day then it will happen on the year 2033. They add his age to the century. But they don¹t give a reason why?

Actually this is not the first time that Jesus is supposed to have come. There are many dates in the human history that people waited for him and he did not show up. A group of Japanese sold their homes, businesses and migrated to Nebraska last year to see Jesus appear on Television on March 29th. He did not show up. Now many people are moving to Jerusalem to wait for his arrival on Dec. 31. If he does not come on 2033 it will be no problem they just change the date.

The Shiite Muslims have something comparable they are waiting for Mehdi to come back to earth and overhaul the mankind¹s existence. Mehdi is supposed to be the son of the eleventh Imam who fell in a water well when he was five or six years of age and from the well he magically disappeared and when he returns to earth the world will become a better place. I don¹t know much about Jesus, but Mehdi is a myth. According to many historian the eleventh Imam was unable to bear children.

I just wonder, what happens if Christians and Muslims are right and Jesus and Mehdi both return to end the problems of the world and make it a better place. Do they compete with each other, on who comes first? If one comes before the other? If Jesus comes before Mehdi does that mean that he would only judge the Christians and spares the Muslims? Or wise versa, if Mehdi comes first does that mean that Christians are saved and Muslims are punished? Or will they both come at the same time? Lets think about this, if one shows up before the other how do they know who to judge. How do they know who is a Shiite Muslims, who is a Sunni, a Christian, a Jew, a Bahaii, Hindu, or an atheist? And where will this judgment take place? Surely one being cannot be everywhere. Would it be in Europe, America, Asia or the New Zealand.

And how would the dead rise. What about all the organ donors? What about all the people who were cremated. How do they rise from the earth? What about the people who died in the sea or burned in the fire. How would they be judged?

Just think about it. Our civilization is matured. Lets shed all the out dated beliefs placed in our minds by the clergy and the men of organized religions and accept the scientific explanation for our being. I believe we evolved over million of years and we all have a limited time, too short to argue with each other over these outdated taboos. For each of us there is a day when the sun sets for the last time and we will become a name in our family¹s archives. Lets believe in ourselves, and our capabilities as individuals and as members of the communities we belong. Lets believe in ourselves and each other. Lets not wait for Jesus or Mehdi to resurrect and bring justice and peace to the world. We can change the world for the better as we have done in the past millenniums. We have grown up now lets not allow fairy tales rule our minds and our actions.

Parvin Darabi