" Being American now means we can believe anything we want"

I would say NOT O/T. Words used to mean something black and white and now they have become chameleon-esque. The Mormon church has been at the forefront of the trend.

If the word doesn't suit you, well, find one that does. Or, change the meaning of the word. Why use the wimpy word "believe" when you can say "I know?" Completely ignoring the the discrepancy in their definitions. A "feeling" becomes an inspiration. A "scam" becomes, "The Lord works in mysterious ways." "White and delightsome" as in skin color, becomes "pure" and delightsome as in "No we aren't racist, really, I swear." And on it goes.

So nowadays, when I have a discussion, the most important thing for me is to Define the Terms.

And our country has followed suit. There are no more lies, there are only "mis-pokes," and "un-truths." More and more people use the phrase, "Your truth is different than my truth," when what they are really saying is "Your agenda is different from my agenda," and, voila, facts have become the enemy. Facts have been demoted to be the "inconvenient truths" that don't require much action anymore because, well, they don't help many people advance their own personal and selfish agenda. Mis-appropriate is a very useful word as well . . .

And so, we have creationism taught in schools and not as part of a "Religions of the World" class, but as fact, as the attempt continues to discredit scientific fact and what is known so far on evolution.

I found this fascinating today because my TBM parents sent me an article about the largest dinosaur ever found in Argentina a few years ago and as they exclaimed, "It's a 100 million years old." And I thought, 'Wow. What happened to the 6,000 year deal?' But I got very happy that they have a version of their truth that allows them to have it both ways. I guess that is the up-side of believing anything you want.