Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
Your response is rather amusing on several counts. Firstly, that my view lacks gravitas as you assume that I know few people of faith and that I don't get out enough. I have friends of different faiths (including a lay preacher) and probably 'get out' more than most people, having visited a multitude of so-called holy places around the world, including Shinto shrines in Japan, Buddhist temples in Vietnam, mosques in the Middle East and Africa, Ancient Greek temples, Roman temples, pagan sites, Native American sacred places, synagogues in Israel and in Eastern Europe etc etc.
Your associating 'God' merely with just one of the Abrahamist schisms suggests that you are perhaps the more parochialist here as we know that there there have been thousands of gods worshipped in the history of mankind and that believers rarely baulk against the one passed down to them by local authorities, customs and their peers. If people were really free thinkers there would be shintoists in the Inuit community and believers in Shiva in Saudi Arabia.
The fact that believing in deities brings comfort to people doesn't mean that it isn't bunkum. The fact that a relative of yours is a Christian is almost definitely down to the expansion of the Roman Empire into Britain. Religion and languages often travel via the same conduits.
As for your comment about 'one shoe fits all', it's a load of cobblers
Wonderful Stuff. Here's something for you to think about. When you next Travel, Visit a City or Town, indulge in Poetry, Writings, Architecture, Art, Sculpture, planning etc-The wonders of Culture-Ask yourself what influenced it and how it got there. You see, you may think it's all 'Bunkum', although Religion has enhanced your life more than you will ever know-or want to know.