07-02-2021, 05:35 PM
Call attention instead to what you have in common. Maybe you both love golf... or skiing... or jazz... or horseback riding... or the ballet.... Religion does not matter that much if you enjoy the rest.
Morals are an issue, and I can easily accept that someone would get a divorce if a spouse became violent, abusive, improvident, or adulterous. There are things to which I cannot relate, like gambling. I hate drugs and drunkenness. I am not going to risk my life for some evanescent thrill.
I can see religion as useful at times; children and the feeble-minded can develop some moral ideas more readily from religion than from some arcane discussion of right and wrong. On the other hand, I prefer that nutters and sociopaths stay clear of religion. They are likely to do more harm to the religion in question and get nothing from religion except themes that they can abuse.
I took a simple test a few years ago that determined what religious traditions or novelties would best fit me. The top three were
Unitarian-Universalist
liberal Quaker
Reform Judaism
I consider a conscience far more desirable than religious dogma. The Spanish Inquisition was strong on dogma and weak on conscience. I can't say that there is no God but there is no more than one, as the Universe itself operates in accordance with well-connected realities of mathematics, physics, and the dialectic. I reject intolerance, especially if violent, and those three traditions are don't evangelize. (OK, there is an effort among Reform Jews to get the non-Jewish spouse in an interfaith marriage to convert... but that would be obvious in my case were I to marry a Jewish woman). These traditions are sympathetic to the intellect... and have no room for rogues. None offers the questionable reward of cheap grace in return for faith. I question the validity of miracles.
Morals are an issue, and I can easily accept that someone would get a divorce if a spouse became violent, abusive, improvident, or adulterous. There are things to which I cannot relate, like gambling. I hate drugs and drunkenness. I am not going to risk my life for some evanescent thrill.
I can see religion as useful at times; children and the feeble-minded can develop some moral ideas more readily from religion than from some arcane discussion of right and wrong. On the other hand, I prefer that nutters and sociopaths stay clear of religion. They are likely to do more harm to the religion in question and get nothing from religion except themes that they can abuse.
I took a simple test a few years ago that determined what religious traditions or novelties would best fit me. The top three were
Unitarian-Universalist
liberal Quaker
Reform Judaism
I consider a conscience far more desirable than religious dogma. The Spanish Inquisition was strong on dogma and weak on conscience. I can't say that there is no God but there is no more than one, as the Universe itself operates in accordance with well-connected realities of mathematics, physics, and the dialectic. I reject intolerance, especially if violent, and those three traditions are don't evangelize. (OK, there is an effort among Reform Jews to get the non-Jewish spouse in an interfaith marriage to convert... but that would be obvious in my case were I to marry a Jewish woman). These traditions are sympathetic to the intellect... and have no room for rogues. None offers the questionable reward of cheap grace in return for faith. I question the validity of miracles.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.