Thanks Foxy and david f, you make for most interesting reading on this forum, and again your input on religion has been most enlightening.
The summer solstice December 21st, a day of significance to ancient people, and still to some adherents in 2016, my partner "T" included, mixing a bit of astrology into religion, does no harm. She is pragmatic when it come to the gods, having a strong Christian belief in that God, I'll call him Jehovah, for want of a better name, and equally a belief in Ranginui the sky father, and Paratuanuku the earth mother, and the other deities, male and female, that flow from this source of creation. Interesting that the Maori give equal standing to both the male and female deities. not many religions do. We do not undertake any journey of significance, like air travel, without "T" requesting the intersession of Tangaroa, god of the sea (and by extrapolation air travel as well) , to ensure a safe journey, and before landing in Aotearoa, a prayer to Tane Mahuta is good helpful insurance while you are there, its worked so far. On return "T" will ask Ranginui to intercede with the local Aboriginal deities (she does not know their names) to allow us, and all on board, a safe return. All this along with a Christian payer as well, seems to work quite satisfactorily.

Dear Paul,

Thank You for your kind words. Your posts are very
interesting as well. I had a grandmother who believed
in the ancient pagan gods like the God of Thunder and so
on even though she was raised in the Orthodox Russian
faith. And when there were storms, lightening, and
thunder, she would walk around the house sprinkling
holy water to keep us safe. Perhaps that's why today I
also tend to lean towards both the ancient and the
Christian beliefs. I understand where your partner is
coming from. As John Lennon stated -
"I believe in everything until its disproved - so I
believe in fairies, myths and dragons..."

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Dear Runner,

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You wrote :

« … much bad done in the name of religion however in a very short time the secularist were able to outdo the evil … Mao, Stalin and evolutionist Hitler »

You have opened-up a can of worms there, Runner. Things are not quite as clear-cut as you seem to imagine.

Though Mao is not known to have had any religious affiliation, his mother was a devout Buddhist and Mao, himself, is said to have been influenced by Taoism. He is reported to have said when he received delegations from Peru in 1964 that "it is wrong to tell people to be against religion." He said that if China did so, "religious people would oppose us... believing in a certain religion doesn't mean people don't oppose imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism" (http://en.people.cn/90001/90776/90882/6610660.html).

Mao was a highly complex character. His position on deity was ambiguous. In his writings, including in “The Little Red Book” ("Self-Reliance and Arduous Struggle chapter 21”) and in many of his poems, he refers to various gods and heaven. Apparently, he did not deny their existence, but seems, rather, to have rebelled against them, as evidenced by one of his famous declarations :

« Battling with heaven, the joy is limitless; battling with Earth, the joy is limitless; battling with people, the joy is limitless »

Stalin was Christian. He was Georgian Orthodox. He was named after St. Joseph and grew up in a religious family where it was planned that he would become a priest. He received an 11 year Christian, religious education to become a priest:

1. The Gori Greek Orthodox priesthood school (1888 - 1894) where he was an Altar Boy.

2. Georgian Orthodox Tiflis Spiritual Priest Seminary in Tbilisi (1894 - 1899).

He later turned his back on religion and adopted Marxism. Whether he actually believed in God or not is a matter of conjecture. The only indisputable fact is that neither Stalin nor Lenin (who was baptised on 28 April 1870 at the local church of St. Nicholas into the Russian
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Orthodox Church) ever declared that he was an atheist or anything other than a Christian.

As regards Hitler, though it has been suggested that he may have had Jewish and African roots, there are numerous passages in his book, “Mein Kampf”, attesting that he considered himself to be Christian.

“The Telegraph”, 11th December,2016, on his Jewish and African roots :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/7961211/Hitler-had-Jewish-and-African-roots-DNA-tests-show.html

“Mein Kampf” attesting to his Christianity :

Volume 1, Chapter 2 :

« Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord »

Closer to home, Runner, Cambodia’s Pol Pot also comes to mind. The Khmer Rouge were composed of Buddhists and Pol Pot himself was a communist and Theravada Buddhist. He studied at a Buddhist monastery, Wat Botum Vaddei in Phnom Penh (1934 – 1935) and then at a Catholic school École Miche in Phnom Penh, for 8 years (1935 – 1943).

By the way, Runner, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “secularism” means :

« The principle of separation of the state from religious institutions »

It has nothing to do with “atheism” which, according to the OED means :

« Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods »

Most secular heads of state in the world today profess affiliation to one of the world’s major religions. The current prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, declared on the ABC’s “Australian Story” in 2009: “I definitely believe in God”. Though it seems he was an agnostic in his youth and married in an Anglican church in Oxfordshire, he later converted to the faith of his wife’s family, Roman Catholicism, in 2002, and has been a practicing Catholic ever since.

Though, apart from Islam, religion is on the wane these days, a majority of secularists declare adhering to some religion. Secularism and religion are not contradictory as you seem to imagine.

In the 2011 Census, 61.1% of the Australian population declared some variety of Christianity.

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Dear Banjo Paterson,

I read with great interest your response to runner
and learned quite a lot.

Thank You.

' Things are not quite as clear-cut as you seem to imagine. '

True Banjo Paterson. The reality is that most monsters see themselves as god. They believe they have the right to slice up unborn babies, treat people who are different as inhumane and make up their own morality. They use pseudo science as some sort of authority to carry out their perversions. The reality is that any thinking person with half a brain could not deny their is a Creator. Who that is can be debated. I just happen to believe it is Jesus Christ.

My use of the word secularism probably is not completely accurate although not nearly as corrupt as secularist are when using the word ' christian' .

Jesus actually said you will know my followers by their fruit. To attribute someone like Hitler who was a strong believer in evolution as a Christian is dishonest at best. He certainly believed in the survival of the fittest. How he would depise seeing that ' pathetic' bunch of Jews being the only thriving democracy on the Middle East today.