No Jim, you are foolish not because you do not believe what Christians believe, but because you use that to adamanently refuse to believe that God may exist...you refuse to believe in the possibility of God.


When I said I have a personal relationship with my God, what I mean is that I have no religion standing between myself and God. I do not base my behaviour on an in depth study of the Bible, Koran or the New Testament, nor on the irrational or unsupported beliefs of others.


I base my behaviour as much as I can on the 10 commandments, the "Golden Rule" and Aristotle's "Golden Mean". Full stop. Yes, those first two are from The Bible, but they also make lots of sense, and Aristotle gave us a wonderful guide to making decisions.


I've certainly read the Old and New Testaments that comprise The Bible, and I've also read the Holy Koran, and a lot of history and philosophy, and I keep up with developments in the sciences and what we know about our world and the universe we live in.


And I've come to a totally different conclusion than you.


I believe history has shown us that religion has brought culture and civilization, looked after the sick, the dying, the poor, and brought education and enlightenment. Yes, it also gave us Torquemada, and it also gives us fundamentalists who refuse to believe the truth of scientific fact, but don't blame that on religion. You can only blame that on individual action and ignorance.


Go back through history, and instead of looking for sticks to beat your dog, and I admit there are lots of them, look at the Mother Theresas, Albert Schweitsers, and Dr Martin Luther Kings. I know you'll find more of those than you'll find Torquemadas and Pope Leos. And I'm certain too of those you'd choose as role models.




If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop