of course it’s a United Church of Christ, so it’s not the most conservative bunch in the world, thank GOD.

Anan – “We all have a responsibility to find out what’s true for ourselves” I think that sentence sums matters up very nicely. As we’re all mere human beings it behooves us to form our own beliefs and respect that of others, without fighting over who is right and who is wrong. In the great scheme of things, chances are good that both will be well off-course. Sadly, television could be a wonderful instrument were it not almost solely utilized for indoctrinal and control purposes.

I’m not sure why you have problems with my email address, but I will certainly pass on your greeting to the stones when I see them.

Twilight – I’m glad your husband is in general agreement. At times I can be harsh on America but never as intentional attacks on the American people as individuals, so endorsement from ‘the natives’ is always welcome. I’ve never been able to conceive of losing the ability to think for myself, despite the usual religious indoctrinations as a kid, though there are obviously many who live their lives in that sad state.

Sunday school teacher turned astrologer? Now there’s one C of E failure, to be sure. It’s enough to make a bishop weep.

WWW – I agree. Organized religion is the cause of much unhappiness, and only rarely a lasting remedy. Though it’s likely the corruption of religion that is the worst offender.

Jung was certainly onto something!

I read your piece to the husband who agreed with you in general. He says he remembers attending a couple of these Vacation Bible School as a very small child, but all they did was draw pictures of Jesus etc. as far as he can remember….of course that was long, long ago.

He points out that one bad aspect of the Bible School phenomenon is that teachers are not necessarily qualified or monitored, and can say more or less whatever they choose to the kids, including passing on their own prejudices and worse.

In my younger years I was a Sunday School teacher (Church of England), what I passed on to the kids was mainly geography and a bit of history and general knowledge about the Middle East than any kind of faith-based belief, as far as I remember, putting Bible stories into context for them.

I became more and more disenchanted with organised religion as age and experience piled on. I think this probably happens to many adults who have not been subjected to heavy indoctrination as a child. There’s the big danger of too much Bible schooling – losing the ability to think for oneself.

As for irrational belief, in my case it’s half right. I teach my kids to question, observe, and analyse, just as my book does. That doesn’t mean that every question is answerable, or that every answer is understandable; but our approach is rational. Yes, we do have hierophants; but they’re not supposed to dictate to us what to do… just to suggest, on the basis of scholarship.

And if we don’t know, we don’t make up a story to cover our ignorance.
We just say we don’t know.

It should make sense to the faithful that an investigation into the natural, physical world should be encouraged. Sure, there is much there that might challenge conventional understanding; but who says that the Almighty is limited to what we can comprehend? For our scholars, the approach is basically that however it happened, the Almighty did it. That goes for evolution et al.

In my opinion, if there is an effort to veer away from reality to cling to an invented perspective, then a definitely skewed path is formed which invariably leads one into fantasy. It’s no use telling me that it’s true because a thousand thousand people have believed it for eons. We all have a responsibility to find out what’s true for ourselves. And yes, that’s in my book, too.

Frankly, i’m shocked that so many people who are supposedly raised in a science-based society, with a full western education, still believe everything the Teevee says without question. Without looking for a second opinion. Or even researching the stories. There is so much misinformation, lying, and downright slander on the Teevee that I’m sure a steady diet of it over an extended period of time must cause a serious cancer of the logic.

That’s yer true irrational belief, RJ.

Fortunately, our school system here was inundated during the seventies with American draft dodgers who taught us how the media was manipulated to get Nixon back into office, how commercials were made to sell products, and how alternative realities could be and are invented to manufacture consent. I wouldn’t believe a fried chicken commercial, now… not even if the hens were hopping off the screen into my lap.

Not everyone got the same education, though. It saddened me, for example, to see a tiny child cringing behind their sanctimonious elder while we were ‘out’ shopping the other day – i guess the tv or some such had taught her that i was no better than terrorist devilspawn crawling down the street, bombs strapped to my waist.

Hey, it must be true.
It’s on television, innit?

I remember having to go to it when I was a kid – the nuns would tell us we could get into heaven easier than the other religions and then we would meet the Lutherans (who went to confirmation classes) at the creek and squabble, even though we got along during the regular school year. All the religions claim that humans are better for believing, but I found it didn’t work in my childhood experience. I still associate lilacs with the experience and it ruins them for me.