Wal, it's a tough question Paul.

It is my personal belief that humans have an inherent spiritual side, and that concepts like justice, ethics, aesthetics, and truth have an innate individual source, not some external paternalistic one. But that's just me and my own opinions.

I do not, in fact, consider religion has any sole claim over ethics in human relationships, because I have found in experience that wherever religion falls back on doctrine, it does a poor job of ethics, and ordinary human compassion often does a much better job -- individual responsibility and compassion are far better guides, in my view, than the dictates of ancient shepherds or even ancient Creators.

Thus, Einstein made a very hard call when he wrote FDR about the possibility of an atomic bomb; and Truman made a very hard call when he chose to use it. These were (as far as I know) not decisions made by some manifestation of the Almighty, or by dowsing the New Testament, although they may have been aided by general prayer, who knows. These men acted on their own sense of right action and consequences, and I am sure their sense of compassion also caused them to mourn the decision or at least the necessity for it.,. As I understand it, the invasion of Iraq, on the other hand, was attributed directly to the Almighty's voice, by GWB, and I have heard no genuine-sounding statements of compassion or regret from any of his devout camp. (Stop me before I thread drift!).

To put this another way, again referring to the notion of keeping religiosity off the commons where civic issues are debated, an individual has to take responsibility for believing what he believes. If he is not willing to be responsible for his decision to believe certain things, then he is to that degree abrogating his responsibility to act in keeping with his own inherent sense of ethics and compassion, and this quandary has provided much great literature as well as real melodrama in life. (E.g., Aquinas, Becket, and the Salem trials for random examples).

A