I read that once again Charles Darwin is being attacked in the United States, where a Christian group is trying to force a school to discredit the theory of evolution in its science textbooks.
Every time American religious activists loudly proclaim humans did not descend from apes, they usually just end up making monkeys of themselves. But what they also show is that for all its image of materialism, the US has strong tendencies towards Christian fundamentalism.
The Philippines, too, is a strongly fundamentalist state. In fact, you could argue it's only a few priests shy of a theocracy.
Nearly every Filipino will probably say God comes ahead of country. The pope, whoever he might be, is a huge celebrity. And almost every Filipino is baptised, confirmed, gets married and receives a funeral send-off in a church.
Attendance at Mass is very high - they're held even inside offices and malls. I once tried buying a ticket from a travel agency only to be told the manager was out to Mass - clearly she was more interested in religion than business.
Four years ago, two Supreme Court justices made the decision to sanction the overthrow of president Joseph Estrada by flipping through the Bible and following the quotation the finger fell on - not the sort of decision-making process you'd find in a secular state.
