Been offline during the Easter days.

Ebbie, I didn't post "Hell pointing to a Catholic background" tongue in cheek but I admit I posted that line for to be misunderstood. "Hell" is a typical Bavarian name and Bavaria is the most Catholic of our lands. So if you meet a German called Hell, Hölle, Höll, Helle or something similar the best guess is that she is Catholic.

"Hell" now means "bright" in both senses of the word, but my last name comes from a word stem that is closely related to the English word "hell".

A "Hell" for a Bavarian (or other South Germans) is a very deep and very narrow dale, a dark place. Well, a place that in some more folk-talish accounts may be pictured as the entrance to the Christian Hell. So these words and meanings are very closely related. But the origin for my last name is like so often in many languages the placename. One of my forefathers must have lived in or come from a deep dale, so to discern him from others with the same Christian name the last name "Hell" (man from the deep dale) must have been added.

But when travelling in English speaking countries I stick to the wrong "bright" explanation. This explanation is short and comforting.

Amos,

a first cause God who since long has stopped interfering but whose works can be seen in nature is the only belief in a God that seems defendable to me. It is not my belief, but if I had one it might be.

Wolfgang