Attacking the Faith

WHEN I SAVAGELY ATTACK the christian religion as barbaric, primitive, and cruel, tell people that I am not religious, and describe all religion as "nonsense', and then proceed to announce that I believe in god, and that Jesus is a hero of mine, the great majority of people look bemused, as though tehy think I'm crazy. I'm not, and I think they are. Or if not crazy,narrow minded. The upshot is this: God is not the same thing as religion. Nor is admiring god the same thing as religion. God is the infinitely superior spirit which, as Einstein said, is manifest in nature. Religion, of which there are thousands of man made varieties, is a human response to god, to life, to nature, consisting of groups organized around shared beliefs, rituals, and dogma. The notion of sacred scripture disconcerts me, makes me question human intelligence. The roman Emperor Constantine convened a council of cardinals at nicea, Asia Minor, modern day turkey, in 325 A.D., and the clerics voted  which ancient manuscripts to include and which to exclude from the holy writ, the canon. four gespels were voted in, fifty seven voted out. the bible became the word of god by ballot. That seems revealing, of human credulity and the willing suspension of fact. If god is a protestant, he can be neither a Catholic nor islamic. Or perhaps he is all human religions, or hone of them. It would seem that all human religions are but one of many possible approaches to God, with perhaps millions more all across the universe. Goethe makes the most sense to me: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine". The best statement of canonical creed, for my spiritual money, comes from Einstein"My religiosity consists of admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the highest importance, for mankind, but not for God." I'll see you in church.