I've not visited this for some time, so forgive me if these comments hark back to more distant comment than the current posts.

I was intrigued by some of the posts re. free will, and the assertions that religion was somehow an expression of God's intention to have us exercise that freedom.

In my experience, the opposite is the case. Most, if not all, of the organised religions, command their followers to subjugate their free will, in part or in whole, to the exigencies of the particular agenda of the hierarchy.

The problem I always had was in getting across the idea that "faith" and "religion" are NOT synonymous.

It seems that those who have the most unshakeable faith are the fundamentalists who don't know the difference, and adhere like glue to the distortions of generations of religious leaders, almost all of whom had some personal agenda to pursue.

Faith in a creator is great, but we need to point out that even the finest products are often marketed by unscrupulous crooks.

We WOULD, in my opinion, be exercising our free will as God would wish, were we to say to our religious leaders, "IF YOU WANT MY LOYALTY, EARN IT BY SHOWING TOLERANCE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING TO ALL THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOUR BELIEFS!........

Don T.