And Sometimes It's The Very Otherness Of

So, We Think About God Far To Easily And That's Because Of A Lot Of Social, Intellectual, And Scientific Changes That Have Taken Place In The Western World And That Has Made God Very Problematic For A Lot Of People.

Religions Have Always Stressed That Compassion Is Not Only Central To Religious Life, It Is The Key To Enlightenment And It The True Test Of Spirituality. But There Have Always Have Been Those Who'd Rather Put Easier Goals, Like Doctrine Conformity, In Place.

Western Liberal Humanism Is Not Something That Comes Naturally To Us: Like An Appreciation Of Art Or Poetry, It Has To Be Cultivated. Humanism Is Itself A Religion Without God-not All Religions, Of Course, Are Theistic. Our Ethical Secular Ideal Has It's Own Disciplines Of Mind And Heart And Gives People The Means Of Finding Faith In The Ultimate Meaning Of Human Life That Were Once Provided By The More Conventional Religions.

If It Is Written And Read With Serious Attention, A Novel, Like A Myth Or Any Great Work Of Art, Can Become An Initiation That Helps Us To Make A Painful Rite Of Passage From One Phase Of Life, One State Of Mind, To Another. A Novel, Like A Myth, Teaches Us To See The World Differently; It Shows Us How To Look Into Our Own Hearts And To See Our World From A Perspective That Goes Beyond Our Own Self-interest.

Saint Augustine ... Insisted That Scripture Taught Nothing But Charity. Whatever The Biblical Author May Have Intended, Any Passage That Seemed To Preach Hatred And Was Not Conducive To Love Must Be Interpreted Allegorically And Made To Speak Of Charity.