[marcm]

Hi Steve and other smart people, I am a blogging neophyte so am not sure quite how to start, but I read with interest your article suggesting (in a nutshell) that religions are perhaps not the best path to follow in order for a human to grow spiritually. This is actually how I have felt for quite some time, I too was raised a Catholic and have shed that particular affiliation, and although Steve was quite blunt in a lot of his assessments of the negative aspects of religions and would thereby offend a lot of people who are affiliated with them, his points are pretty valid. I read an amazing book by authors Peter Gandy and Tim Freke (yes, like freak) called The Laughing Jesus, which divides religions up into 'the baby' (the true spiritual center of most religions) and 'the bathwater' (all the crap described in the '10 reasons' article).

I think one of the things that makes religions so powerful is this little central kernel of truth on which all of the rest builds, and if it can be dug out and salvaged, it's ok to toss the rest as it does in fact hold us back from true spiritual growth.

Thanks, Steve, for your candor and all of the powerful information you have gathered here, I am enjoying exploring your site. M