All those who focus on all the faults of the past, better prove they're better than our forebears by denouncing & forfeiting all the benefits that we all enjoy & make use of now due to that past !
If they don't then they're morally no better than those whom they denounce !

Dear David F.,

Thank you so much for your thoughts. You always add so
much to each discussion. When my mother died just a few
years ago, I was at a loss. She was 96 years old. And
the most comfort that I received was from a Rabbi who
didn't know me and I didn't know him - but we started to
communicate online. He helped me so much during a difficult
time. We still communicate today.

I am reading responses with great interest.
To the best of my belief, throughout history people have been told to 'know thyself'.
They are never told how to do this however.
But if it is a viable way forward, it should be possible?
So ran my thoughts, and I conjectured that one would just need to start somewhere, anywhere, with the simplest of questions about life.
I did.
As the years rolled by I dissected and examined many things I had been taught whilst growing up.
I found they did not stand up to examination.
One by one those 'pillars of normality' fell over.
So my outlook changed dramatically.
What I had been 'taught' about religion faded rapidly.
Replaced by what I feel is a much healthier outlook on life.

I must be doing something right.
When those around me are running around like chickens without heads, I seem to keep a steady gait, and stay calm and ordered.
I can stand back and view myself as one of our human species. (yes, I am one)
I can see that my thinking was right off the rails when I was much younger.
I see the faults I have now, and I endeavour not to inflict them on others.
I see good points about me too.
I can see clearly that a restrictive religious approach would never have allowed me to grow as I have.
I think I am comfortable in my own skin, and realistic in my outlook on life.
I am glad I had the nerve to 'think outside the box'.
My sense is that, in one way or another, I contribute quite a lot to those who live near me.
And these days I see a religious approach to life as something quite horrific.
It is not at all as some would have you believe.
Words like 'nasty' and 'controlling' come to my mind.
But I calmly accept that another person might find benefit from their religious slant.
I do not try to change their ideas.

I guess - it's the person that you are that matters.
It's what you feel inside that counts. And how you
relate to others.

Indyvidual writes Wednesday, 19 October 2022 9:00:06 PM:
"All those who focus on all the faults of the past, better prove they're better than our forebears by denouncing & forfeiting all the benefits that we all enjoy & make use of now due to that past !"

Separating your past's "benefits" from all those advantages accruing to humankind that arose despite your past's influence over the minds of so many is the business of history and science and could not be smothered.

That your past left so few free to exercise intellectual curiosity unfettered is an unerring indicator of how tenacious is the human pursuit of truth, our determination to reach closer approximation of it or the determination to try harder in the face of adversity.

"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good."
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956)

I was raised as a devout Catholic by my mother. I was an altar boy and heading for the priesthood at 18. So, I studied religiously. And learned how much the pagan sun worshiper Constantine had changed so much of Christian practice none of which proceeded him.

Before him and his appointed lackies there was no sacrifice at the altar. No bread and wine ceremony, no Church marriage and no confessional.

Marriage as a church institution is a little more than 300 years, the confessional a little over 700.

Today's church has so little in common with early esoteric Christianity as to be 2 entirely different belief systems.

Needless to say, I no longer attend church services.

Any belief system that has a leader that cannot err is not a religion, but rather, a cult!
Alan B.