God

If California starts building a 130-mile segment of high-speed rail late this year as planned, it will enter into a risky race against a deadline set up under federal law. The bullet train track through the Central Valley would cost $6 billion and have to be completed by September 2017, or else potentially lose some of its federal funding. It would mean spending as much as $3.5 million every calendar day, holidays and weekends included -- the fastest rate of transportation construction known in U.S. history, according to industry and academic experts.

There's a flicker of uncertainty in Danny Burstein's friendly brown eyes as he greets a reporter backstage at the Ahmanson Theatre, as if he half-expects her to step around him on her way into the dressing room of one of his "Follies" costars. "When I heard that The Times wanted to talk to me, I said, 'Are you sure?'" he says, after being persuaded that he, and not Ron Raines, Victoria Clark, Jan Maxwell,Elaine Page,or any of the show's other big guns, is meant to be the subject of this interview.

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 "An evolving vote," Opinion, May 13 Many Christians believe that the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," originates in the Bible. They are wrong. The 4,000-year old Hindu Anusasana Parva says, "One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self. " Similar statements are found worldwide. The nonsectarian, worldwide golden rule precedes all modern religions, providing a window into an antiquity when behavioral rules were not backed by a god's will.

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.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

There wasn't much to like about Facebook's first day as a public company. The social media giant's stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering. The shares closed at $38.23, barely above the $38 IPO price. The performance fell far short of the grandiose expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on. "There was all this pressure and hype and attention with all eyes on Facebook — and the starlet tripped on the red carpet," said Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

There's so much to praise in the blissful Broadway revival of "Follies," which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre on the heels of its numerous Tony nominations, but let's pay homage first to the sheer sophistication of the show itself. After experiencing "Follies" again - an adult entertainment if ever there was one - I flat-out refuse to accept any more jukebox substitutes. One doesn't often talk about architecture when writing about musicals, but the most impressive thing about "Follies," beyond Stephen Sondheim's bejeweled score, is the ingenious way it is constructed.

The Trinity Broadcasting Network, which bills itself as the world's largest Christian network, is embroiled in a legal battle involving allegations of massive financial fraud and lavish spending, including the purchase of a $100,000 motor home for family dogs. Brittany Koper, a former high-ranking TBN official and the granddaughter of its co-founder, Paul Crouch Sr., was fired by the network in September after discovering "illegal financial schemes" amounting to tens of millions of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.

Manny Pacquiao's skyrocketing popularity created chaos that no mere mortal could be expected to balance. Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 knockouts) appeared more human than ever in his last fight, however. As he prepares now for his next bout June 9 against Timothy Bradley, Pacquiao and his trainer acknowledge Everyman's frailty has been his most imposing contender. "All the distractions caught up to Manny in his last fight," Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said Thursday of the boxer's narrow decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in November.

'God Bless America' MPAA rating: R for strong violence and language including some sexual sequences Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Playing: At Downtown Independent

At times"God Bless America"feels more like an assault weapon than a movie, possibly an AK-47. This funny, sick twist of social satire is certainly locked and loaded, even if its aim is sometimes off. The central character is Frank (Joel Murray), a vigilante of virtue who targets the irritants of modern times - reality TV stars, bratty teens, people who check cellphones in movies and a judge on a talent show who sounds a lot like Simon Cowell. The commentary that runs through Frank's head is accompanied by a ton of blood and guts splattered all over the place because, frankly, writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait has a lot he wants to get off his chest.

This year's presidential campaign has had its share of arguments over issues long thought settled - contraception, for one. But another wrangle between Republicans and President Obama dates far earlier than that 1960s throwback and centers on the very origins of the nation. Republicans have argued that the president fails to understand that the country was divinely inspired, based on the Declaration of Independence's assertion that citizens were “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The "American exceptionalism" argument, as it is known, is meant to curry favor with tea party adherents who revere the founding documents, inspire a religiously tinged sense of optimism and -- not least -- portray the president as out of the American mainstream.

The parents of Trayvon Martin greeted the filing of second-degree murder charges against the man who shot and killed their son with tears of thanks and a call to continue fighting for justice. At an emotional, televised news conference from Washington, D.C., Sybrina Fulton, the teenager's mother, fought back her tears. “First of all, I want to say: Thank God,” she said Wednesday evening. “We simply wanted an arrest. We wanted nothing more, nothing less than an arrest and we got it. And I say: Thank you. Thank you, Lord; thank you, Jesus.” “I just want to speak from my heart to your heart because a heart has no color,” she added, alluding to the racial overtones of the case.

Free Will Sam Harris Free Press: 85 pp., $9.99 paper Religion for Atheists Alain de Botton Pantheon: 320 pp., $26.95 Once upon a time I took a degree in philosophy at the University of Cambridge. One of my tutors was Don Cupitt, a philosopher and radical theologian who challenged the doctrine that Jesus was God incarnate; Cupitt, though a priest himself, questioned the entire theistic notion of God. If God isn't God, one might think, then what's the point of him?

'God Is the Bigger Elvis' Where: HBO When: 8 p.m. Thursday Rating: Not rated

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.

The Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove is involved in another controversy, this time over a covenant that choir members were asked to sign stating that God intends sex to be between married heterosexuals. "Crystal Cathedral ministries believes that it is important to teach and model the biblical view," reads the paragraph in the Crystal Cathedral Worship Choir and Worship Team Covenant that has raised the ire of some choir members. "I understand that Crystal Cathedral Ministries teaches that sexual intimacy is intended by God to only be within the bonds of marriage, between one man and one woman.

"God Is the Bigger Elvis," Rebecca Cammisa's Oscar-nominated short subject, which comes to HBO Thursday -- Holy Thursday, by the Catholic calendar -- tells the story of Dolores Hart, who turned her back on Hollywood stardom in the early 1960s to become a Benedictine nun. "I often wonder why the Lord gave me such an opportunity to audition for Elvis," wonders Hart, who still gets and answers fan mail. ("What are you doing now?" one young admirer writes.) She made her movie debut opposite Presley in the 1957 "Loving You," reteamed with him the next year in "King Creole," and made eight more movies and starred on Broadway before entering the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., of which she is now the mother prioress.

The play was designed for Kobe Bryant. The Lakers had squandered a 17-point lead over New Jersey and held only a one-point advantage at 88-87 with 10 seconds remaining. Matt Barnes delivered the ball to the team's star. Bryant, coming off of a screen, shot a 26-foot three-pointer, which bounced seven times on the rim before falling through the net, allowing an anxious Staples Center crowd to celebrate instead of reel over what otherwise could have been an inconceivable loss.