It should not be fear of the consequences of ‘judgement day’ that turns anyone to believe in God surely? Wow that is medieval. And I guess that I am prepared to take that chance. No problem. I don’t want to live forever and if hell is my fate then I will use logic and rationality to cope with it.

Critical and analyitical thinking is always in order and some Christians really do this. I don’t know much about the Quakers though I think that nun who was in the movie ‘Dead Man Walking’ was a quaker?

But I listen to the Religion Report on Radio National and I am constantly amazed at the depth of analysis and uncertainty about the meaning of Christ and God revealed by some of the Christians interviewed. This sort of humility and critical thinking is not reflected by those who contribute to these forums. Some of them even seem to know when an abomination is not an abomination and when it really is.

We all need something though don’t we? I use various philosophies, Spinoza, Buddhism and some of the easy postmodernists, even science I guess provides a basis for my thinking about right and wrong.

One thing that I find interesting is that the Australian Indigenous didn’t evolve a theology that projected human attributes onto a metaphysical being. Their religions are very sophistictated and not simple ancestor worship or the dreamtime myths.

I suspect that it is when humans develop the power to ‘take dominion’ over the earth and it’s creatures that they need to invoke some sort of deity that tells them it is okay to do this. And today we can even take dominion over our own DNA. That makes formulating ones own moral code very difficult I spose.

Bozzie, you obviously haven't been following media reporting from Italy, Poland and elsewhere in Europe. There have indeed been many people for whom the late Pope's death is a traumatic experience. That is how they are articulating it and I have no reason to disbelieve it. No doubt they will recover but for them it appears almost like a death in the family.

Given John Paul II's opinions on homosexuality and gay families, I am not likely to warm to him nor his supporters on these issues. My heart does become very cold and unforgiving.

However, I'll be generous enough not to describe Catholicism as "evil" or "an objective disorder". And far be it for me to label priestly cellibacy and child molestation as "a culture of death".