Reply #8: You're a better man than I am Gunga Din...

[DeSwiss]

I thought you letter was excellent! Very thoughtful and respectful. Qualities that I have long since forsaken when speaking to most Christians. But then again, they don't bother me anymore either.

I once used to wonder why anyone could hate me because I'm black. Being a child of the 50s and later moving to the South as a teen, believe me, it became very important to know these things. My life could depend upon it. I finally concluded that it wasn't ME per se, but what they thought I represented. They weren't prepared to challenge their preconceived notions and like many who are intellectually lazy (as with religious people who are spiritually lazy) fell back on the tried and true. Things they'd been taught. Or worse, things they'd extrapolated and applied to me, from some examples of others (there are bad apples in every barrel). But I knew that I was an educated person and I'm very loquacious. I love conversation and to discover new things. There weren't any reasons to dislike me, particularly if they didn't know me. It wasn't me, it was them.

I've been a professional most of my adult life and have run my own business for almost 20 years. I fit no known mold that most people can pigeonhole me in because I refuse to comply. And when questions regarding religion are raised to me, as seldom as that is now, I tell people that God doesn't need a church nor a religion. That these institutions were mankind's idea. And any cursory review of history will confirm this. If they pursue it further, I elaborate. Most of the time they don't.

But I'm a PK -- a preacher's kid. I know the bible inside and out. And I've studied countless religions and philosophies over the past 35 years or more. Religion isn't static, its part of a continuum. Christians generally speaking -- are stuck. They're stuck back 2000 years ago with their bodies in the 21st century. I've never understood how even most of them will acknowledge that everything evolves, but somehow our understanding of spiritual matters isn't supposed to. The bible was written by a few learned men for the illiterate and uneducated masses. And most of the Christians I've met are just as uneducated about their religion (and much of life) as their counterparts 2000 years ago. They don't want to look too closely because once flaws are found it throws all of it into question. So they don't.

As I said earlier today on another post, there is security in the herd, and threatening that makes people defensive. No one wants to be thought a fool for what they believe. For me, I leave most people alone to believe whatever they want. Except when they seek to impose their beliefs onto me and my life through laws. That's where I draw the line. But people who cling to religion do so because they perceive that they need it. They cannot fathom existence without it. They want things to make sense, when often times they are quite bizarre. Like Bush being president.

But I'd say that you're on the right track -- stay on it. If your wife has trouble with your verbiage, then leave it alone. Its not worth upsetting your happy home for.

Oh, and btw, I would send the book back whether you send the letter or not.

That's my-