Ditto, Greg. Shut yer gob, sod off, push off, bugger off, get stuffed, and go pound sand.

Steve - To the contrary, old sport. I was not being disingenous in the least when I said that. I was being dead serious. To become genuinely free a person must be willing to challenge religious mythology, political mythology, cultural mythology and every common form of social mythology that is shoved down the throats of the young by their usually well-meaning but far from omniscient parents. It is a lifelong challenge.

I easily rejected the more primitive forms of religious mythology by the time I was 5 or 6 years old, after being sent to just ONE Sunday school class. That was all it took for me to say "I don't buy this stuff." It took another couple of years maybe to see through the "Santa Claus" thing, which my parents went to some trouble to inculcate in my consciousness. It took quite a bit longer, however, for me to see through the absolute bloody mountain of social, political, and cultural propaganda that was likewise foisted on me by a well-meaning adult world, by the schools, by the government, etc.

It's a lifetime job to get free of that sort of programming, and most people don't do it all that well, because they just tend to believe what they're told as long as it comes from the higher "authorities" all around them.

But I'm sure you're far too clever to be taken in like that, right?

(I grew up in an atheist family, by the way. My mother sent me to that one single Sunday school class simply because "all the other children" were going, and she was worried what the neighbours would think if I didn't go too. I came back, said, "They're teaching crazy stuff there that can't possibly be true," and she said, "Okay, then I won't send you there anymore."

Just the sort of thing you like to hear, right, Steve? I was SAVED!!! (in your terms) ;-D And by my very own decision too. I never attended a church during my entire childhood and adolescence other than that one abortive visit to Sunday school. More stuff for you to be happy about, Steve! Light a bunsen burner and say a few "Hail Dawkins's" as you celebrate my escape from the dreadful horrors of oganized religion... (sarcasm)