Joe:

I think there's another element at play that produces the kind of sparks you so justifiably protest. Two, actually.

1. There is always a good amount of ham-handed miseducation going on in children's lives when adults try to tell them things metaphorical in un-nuanced concrete terms "God is watching you so be good...". So they imagine angels, divine oversight, and the consequences of bad karmic choices in vivid but inaccurate images and then wonder why things don't work that way. The side-effect of bad education is for the trusting student to feel betrayed.

2. At the same time, spiritual discussions resonate deeply with an individual's most intimate sense of life, and when someone inadvertently treads on those feelings, explosions of unexpected degrees of vehemence can ensue.


A