(I would ask the casual browser not to read this post alone.  I think Sophiee's immediately preceding post is important.)

I concluded some time ago that ALL religions represented here have some degree of fraud "at bottom."

To that extent, we're none of us any better off than the Mormons, the Moonies, or even the Raelians.

One's religion is what one makes of it.

A week or two ago I involuntarily came into a state of hightened spiritual awareness.  On the one hand, I know by what path I got here, and although my Christianity is by no means traditional, the Christianity I do have isn't going to change.  Recent posts show that I'm currently intense into the Gospels; I am also strongly devoted to my congregation.

On the other hand, this current state raises questions I wish I could talk over with someone, and the person I suppose best suited for that role is a former participant here, IMO very likely one of the five or six holiest living men on earth.  He is frum.

One's religion is what one makes of it.  At one pole we have the likes of Theodosius and that idiot about whom I wrote here.  At the other pole we have the likes of Albert Schweitzer, Tom Dooley and Rick Hodes.

I personally don't believe Moses ever uttered the words reported at Deuteronomy 30:19.  But the question or decision G-d poses there, faces everyone.

P.

“What I admire is honesty and truth, no matter who, or what, the sources are.”
— Uri Yosef