God

Keegan Bradley had no thoughts about a course record, or the possibility of a 59, after consecutive bogeys in the middle of his opening round in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. Until his 136-yard wedge shot on his final hole Thursday. "It was going right at it. [A 59] crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this," Bradley said. "But I had three feet to shoot 60. I was actually very nervous, uncomfortable over it and thank God I made it. " Bradley shot 10-under-par 60, completed by that short birdie at the 428-yard ninth hole, to break the TPC Four Seasons course record and match the best round ever at the Nelson.

Re "Medical rates range off the chart," May 9 Our political leaders regularly lament the notion that ever-rising healthcare costs will eventually bankrupt our country. The question is why they treat this problem as if it were an act of God, totally beyond their power to do anything about it. In most businesses the price is based on actual costs plus overhead, profit and other items. In healthcare, the price is whatever ridiculously inflated number someone has the gall to put on the bill.

Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community. According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%)

Re "2 views of gay NBA player," May 3 It is clear from this article about reactions to professional basketball player Jason Collins' announcement he is gay that many Christians have been taught differently in their denominations about homosexuality. One high school student quoted in this story said he believes that God created people to be heterosexual; another said he believes that God created people to live up to their potential, regardless of their sexual orientation. One's religion is important in making ethical decisions, as it should be. Thus, it would be helpful if the top clergy of various Christian denominations taught their followers that all people should be accepted and valued, regardless of their innate sexual orientation, and be free to satisfy their own potential.

Jeanne Cooper Emmy winner starred in 'The Young and the Restless' Jeanne Cooper, 84, the enduring soap opera star who played grande dame Katherine Chancellor for nearly four decades on CBS' "The Young and the Restless," died Wednesday in her sleep, according to the network. Cooper's son, actor Corbin Bernsen, said last month in Twitter messages that she had been suffering from an undisclosed illness. A Los Angeles resident, Cooper joined the daytime serial six months after its March 1973 debut, staking claim to the title of longest-tenured cast member.

Before John Lennon imagined "living life in peace," he conjured "no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too. " No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without "divine" messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to "God's will. " Where politicians no longer compete to prove who believes more strongly in the irrational and untenable.

Reporting from Florence, S.C. -- In the race to be the most sincere Christian candidate for president, Rick Santorum looks like the front-runner. Out on the edge of town here Sunday afternoon, out among the big box stores and strip malls, at a family restaurant called Percy and Willie's, Santorum came by to shake hands and speak to a crowd of diners who had likely spent the morning praising the Lord at one of the area's many evangelical churches. "America is a moral enterprise, not an economic enterprise," Santorum declared.

When a powerful tropical storm sweeps close enough to wipe out the first day of the Republican National Convention, is it a sign of divine intervention? A small, but significant, segment of Republican voters believe that extreme weather is more than a random interaction of atmospheric forces. When hurricanes or droughts or earthquakes inflict suffering on humanity, these folks take it as a sign of God's punishment. What then do we make of the storm that is sweeping by Tampa? Is the Almighty angered because the party that claims to speak for devout Americans is about to nominate a Mormon and a Roman Catholic as their candidates for president and vice president?

Actress Yvette Wilson, the stand-up comedian and actress best known for her roles on the sitcom "Moesha" and its spinoff, "The Parkers," died Thursday at age 48 after a battle with cervical cancer. Wilson's friend Jeffrey Pittle, who organized a fund to help with her medical bills, confirmed her death to The Times. "She was a fighter to the end, and her talent, humor and amazing friendship will be sorely missed," he wrote on the fund's website. "She will live on through her awesome body of work.

The author Anne Rice, best known for her vampire novels, made waves last week when she declared on her Facebook page that she had "quit being a Christian." Twelve years after her return to Catholicism, Rice said she still believed in God, but that, "In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life."

WEST, Texas - The crowd that had gathered - lighting candles, offering prayers, crying as they tightly embraced family and friends - had streamed from the dimly lighted sanctuary of Assumption Catholic Church, but Kelly Nelson lingered behind. “The people who we lost, these are people I know, I see on a daily basis,” Nelson said. “Knowing that I'm never going to see these people on the Earth again is very difficult for me to handle.” On Wednesday night, a blast at a fertilizer plant rocked this small east-central Texas town.

WEST, Texas - The crowd that had gathered - lighting candles, offering prayers, crying as they tightly embraced family and friends - had streamed from the dimly lit sanctuary of Assumption Catholic Church, but Kelly Nelson lingered behind. “The people who we lost, these are people I know, I see on a daily basis,” Nelson said. “Knowing that I'm never going to see these people on the earth again is very difficult for me to handle.” On Wednesday night, a blast at the West Fertilizer Co. plant had rocked this small town.

It is heartening in a way that perhaps the biggest comic in America - in a sense of cultural import if not necessarily in income, though he is obviously doing well there too - is a doughy, bald man of 45. It's heartening both from the aspect of one's own advancing age and as notice that kids these days are not entirely consumed with things made in their own image. That experience counts for something is an explicitly stated theme of Louis C.K.'s new concert special, "Oh My God," which premieres Saturday on HBO: Real wisdom is a thing that only time can earn, he says.

Terrence Malick, as unconventional, esoteric and spiritual as ever, has created an ocean of love in "To the Wonder," filling it with calm seas, treacherous storms, incredible beauty and a god who watches over it all. Love in all its many facets is distilled and dissected by the writer/director from first flame to dying embers, between couples and between mankind and God. There is no new ground, really, the distinction is in the way Malick covers...

According to a survey conducted by the Bertelsmann Religion Foundation Monitor, the United States is the most religious nation in the industrialized world. The Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that 88% of the Americans it surveyed are fairly or absolutely certain that God exists, and that more than half of them say religion is "very important" in their lives. Personally, I've always had a tenuous relationship with organized religion, especially Christianity. As it was for most African Americans of my generation, the church was a powerful force in my childhood.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 7 -13, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       SUNDAY Yee-haw and amen! Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan host "The 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards" and Steve Harvey is master of ceremonies for "Celebration of Gospel 2013. " 8 p.m. CBS; 8 p.m. BET The ad men of "Mad Men" are back for a sixth season, but the bad men of "Shameless," "House of Lies" and "Californication" sign off for now with those series' respective season finales.

In the United States, despite a Constitution that mandates the separation of church and state, religion and politics have become inseparable. To lend authority to their views, presidential aspirants of both parties regularly press God into service. They know what he intends. So the claims made by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in a recent speech at the Citadel managed to be both striking and unexceptionable. "God did not create this country to be a nation of followers," Romney announced.

You may think you know the Buddha, because you have seen him standing outside a Chinese restaurant, belly burnished from being rubbed repeatedly for good luck, or hiding in the corner of a garden. But you have more to learn, grasshopper. David Grubin's "The Buddha," which airs Wednesday on PBS, is not the story of Buddhism -- whose history as a religion, like that of Christianity, really gets going after the demise of its founder and is addressed here only in a couple of lines near the end of the film -- but rather that of the historical person who said the things on which followers have based their several, differing practices.

Fans of the 2011 artsploitation hit “Drive” have been on tenterhooks waiting for more footage from “Only God Forgives,” the Thai Western that director Nicolas Refn had been talking about for months, then went ahead and cast his “Drive” star Ryan Gosling in. They can rest a little easier - or feel their blood pressure climb further--at the first sign of extensive footage from the 2013 release.  The red-band trailer for the new phantasma...

A 25-year-old man, sounding disjointed and rambling, appeared in an Ohio court on Monday on charges that shot his father to death outside a church on Easter, officials said. Wearing prison garb, Reshad Riddle, appeared Monday afternoon in Ashtabula Municipal Court where he was charged with shooting his father, Richard Riddle, 52, with a single shot from a handgun on Sunday afternoon after worshipers fled the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ. Riddle was ordered held on a $1 million bail, the court bailiff, Donald Rossetti, told the Los Angeles Times by telephone.