I apologize if my instinctive reaction to religiosity is often a harsh one. One reason, (not excuse), is that my contact with religious concepts began, and has been mostly restricted to, the toxic fundamentalist Christianity of the deep South of a half century ago, now making a comeback into the culture. As I look around the world today I see other religions adopting the same virulent and intolerant modes. The core concepts of all faiths are often noble and sublime, but in practice, they are often the justification for hatred. I realize that this is not a novel observation, and that even many of the faithful would agree with me, but it is nonetheless true.

The great religions of the world do offer immense philosophical value. Judaism introduced a moral sense and human connection to the universe, Christianity offered a divinity that tempered his power with the committment to suffer alongside his own creation. Islam brought a charity and tolerance which was sadly lacking in the medieval world, and Buddhism dispensed with the idea of Godhead altogether, recognizing that in the end it is Man's relationship to the Universe which is the fundamental reality we all have to confront, and that it is most certainly an illusion. But all religious systems, even if they can avoid the pitfalls of factionalism and hatred, will always remain fundamentally intolerant. Their intolerance may be benign in that it does not manifest as violence, but it is intolerant nonetheless. Perhaps I am guilty of that arrogance as well.

Once removed from the acts of division and exclusion, I am inclined to be generous with other's religious beliefs, recognizing that there are also subjective and unverifiable articles of faith in my own world-view. But I still bristle at the implication that because I cannot easily embrace the concept of a conscious Creator that I must therefore be an individual of empty moral and ethical values. I consider myself a deeply spiritual person, and I sincerely believe that whatever Truth does lie behind the veil is so profound and so elegant that the medieval and tribal mythologies we have put forth to explain it will be shown to be totally inadequate. They are too easy to be useful, and too simple to be true.