Inventing Our Religions

ANYONE WISHING TO INFLUENCE MY RELIGIOSITY is perfectly free to try, and I, poor I, being of beneficent disposition, will likely listen. Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking, fine. Invite 'em in, and offer to listen, as long at they...listen to me. Maybe I can make atheists out of them. If we argue, we can always go out back, and mix. But hell. What's the point? I have lived decades, become reasonably well educated, and have devoted a considerable amount of time and effort developing my religious beliefs, like everyone else. I have evolved, but have changed in no fundamental way since about the age of ten, except that, while tripping on mushrooms, I discovered God at age twenty eight. Why would anyone think it possible to influence me, or even want to? I've read the Bible, the Dhammapada, the Upanishads, Kant, Spinoza, Thomas Paine, Herman Hesse, and all kindsa other cool cats, and I humbly suggest that others do the same. I call my religion "pantheism", or "deism", or "science", or "baseball", whichever you prefer. Like Einstein, my religiosity consists in humble admiration of nature, without any judgmental, angry, violent, jealous, get-even God, and morality, to me, like Einstein, is vital, and purely derived of the human mind, and is of no concern to God. My religion is beautiful, just like yours, and, just like yours, should be respected, and left alone. But, inevitably, here come the Christians, thinking they can show me a better way, as if I hadn't spent my life immersed in Christian culture, as if I hadn't spent my life developing my religiosity without the assistance of people trying to improve me. To me, proselytizing is an insult, and quite disrespectful. Shouldn't we assume that other people are as capable of finding their own way in the realm of spiritual matters without the burden of someone else's evangelical fervor? The last thing I want is for anyone to share my beliefs. And to anyone who thinks that anyone would be better off by being converted to your religion, reconsider. The intended target is just fine, already. Like Goethe said, when I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine.