Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

Another Halloween has come and gone. Not that I'm a big fan of Halloween but I was a little surprised that not many wee goblins came to our house this year. There weren't many people at the mall either. The parking lot was virtually empty when I drove by it that night on the way home from work. Perhaps the e-mail notice that circulated about malls being targeted by terrorists on Halloween night kept people indoors this year.

Ah, yes, the e-mail! What better way to get sound advice, inspiration, and reliable information? For some uncanny reason we feel that if we see it in print, it must be so. E-mail messages must be right up there with the National Enquirer on credibility. I especially love the ones that start with, "This is not a joke!" or "This is not a hoax!" or "This is totally true because I heard it from the nephew of the uncle who gets his hair cut by the same barber who cuts the hair of the guy whose daughter works at the deli shop where the chauffeur for the ambassador from Afghanistan buys a pastrami on rye, hold the mustard, every Tuesday afternoon." I think this is the one who sent me the e-mail about terrorists targeting the malls on Halloween.

How do these rumors get started? We have those oldies but goodies like shampoo and antiperspirant cause cancer, sunscreen causes blindness, and the owner of Proctor and Gamble is a Satanist. And of course my personal favorite is that Kentucky Fried Chicken doesn't use real chickens but genetically manipulated organisms. That's why they are called KFC, because they can't use the actual word "chicken" in their title. It would be misleading.

The events on September 11 have spawned a whole new group of urban legends. Nostradamus supposedly predicted the World Trade Tower tragedy in 1645. 4000 Jews supposedly didn't show up for work at the WTC because the attack was an Israeli conspiracy and they were all warned ahead of time. Ironing your mail supposedly will kill Anthrax. We should boycott Dunkin' Donuts because some franchise owner supposedly burned a flag. (The Krispy Kreme Company may have started this rumor but that is just an unsubstantiated rumor). Bert the Muppet supposedly appears on a poster with Osama bin Laden. Oops! That one IS true! Sometimes it's hard to separate fact from fiction. You have to do your research.

Then there are the events that some would have you believe didn't happen but really did such as the Holocaust or Americans selling slaves. Some would even have you believe that Christ was just a nice guy. These events take some research, too, if you are to truly understand them. That's exactly what Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune did in his book, The Case for Christ. He, an investigative reporter who was not a Christian, investigated the existence, deity, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The results may surprise you.

Did Jesus exist? Was he just another nice guy? Was he resurrected? Is the New Testament reliable? Does evidence for Jesus exist outside the Bible? The Bible says to seek and you will find (Luke 11:9), to study (2 Timothy 2:15), and to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2). Rumor has it that salvation may be too precious a gift to lose because you would rather believe an urban legend about Christ than take the time to find out for yourself. Oops! That IS NOT a rumor! That's true!

©November 2001

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bydahlgren@aol.com.