Sometimes I Call Myself A Freelance, I

If It Is Written And Read With Serious Attention, A Novel, Like A Myth Or Any Great Work Of Art, Can Become An Initiation That Helps Us To Make A Painful Rite Of Passage From One Phase Of Life, One State Of Mind, To Another. A Novel, Like A Myth, Teaches Us To See The World Differently; It Shows Us How To Look Into Our Own Hearts And To See Our World From A Perspective That Goes Beyond Our Own Self-interest.

A God Who Kept Tinkering With The Universe Was Absurd; A God Who Interfered With Human Freedom And Creativity Was A Tyrant. If God Is Seen As A Self In A World Of His Own, An Ego That Relates To A Thought, A Cause Separate From Its Effect, He Becomes A Being, Not Being Itself. An Omnipotent, All‐knowing Tyrant Is Not So Different From Earthly Dictators Who Make Everything And Everybody Mere Cogs In The Machine Which They Controlled. An Atheism That Rejects Such A God Is Amply Justified.

Religion Is A Practical Discipline And It's One That We Have Always Done, Ever Since Humanity Appeared On The Scene When Homo Sapiens Became Homo Sapiens. Sapiens Became A Human Being, Our Minds Very Naturally Segue Into Transcendence.

Buddhists Talk About Nirvana In Very Much The Same Terms As Monotheists Describe God.

Religions Have Found That If You Behave In A Certain Way, If You Sort Of Perform Certain Rituals That Expand Your Mind And Make You Realize That Will Make You Realize And Help You To Seguey Into Transcendence And Perform Certain Acts, Adopt A Certain Lifestyle, You Develop New Capacities Of Mind And Heart, Just Like The Dancer, Or The Athlete That Make You Into A Whole Human Being And Principle After One Of These Disciplines Right Across The Board In All Of The Faiths Is Compassion, The Ability To Feel With The Other Person.