***** On Religion.... When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving... Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality. And... It is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'religion' - world view, understanding of how things work, belief system. "Fundamentalism" is the genocidal problem. (click for detail)

(the following is far from neatly written and thought out but it is an explosive advance, for me, this afternoon, in terms of my understanding of these issues)

When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving

Religion is often on my mind because it is central to the single greatest evil on earth today - the slow torture genocide of my Muslim / Christian family in Palestine by Fundamentalist US christians and Israeli jews.  This is forcing me into study of Islam, Judaism, fundamentalism (christian and jewish)... that otherwise I would not undertake:

Human Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality because we Humans are in imperfect species.

And... It is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'Religion' - world view, understanding of how things work, belief system.

And it is Impossible to Thrive Spiritually and Physically without a comprehensive, healthy, Holistic, Truth-Approximating Religion that enables one to keep all aspects of their needs as humans optimally met, and those of the people they influence, most importantly young-ones. (Adamant 'Blindness' to this is maybe the most fatal flaw of the Left.)

One of the greatest scientific minds, EO Wilson, is in the news recent days for his stance in an upcoming book that the world is dying from religion. I often have this thought.  But seeing this from him makes me recall that no one does not have a 'religion,' a 'belief system,' a way of 'seeing and understanding' the world. 

What may well destroy the world, and what DOES destroy any individual 'spiritually' (the only existence that matters) is not Religion, which is Indispensable and Unavoidable, but Fundamentalism, that is, when one  moves from understanding that their way of seeing the world is NOT REALITY, NOT TRUE... that the world, the Creator, is REAL, TRUE, and that our religion at best can only approximate that Truth, Reality... to the error of 'believing' their Religion to be True, Realty, and therefore 1. The Only True religion (all others being inferior) and 2. Dead, Fixed, no longer moving closer to the Truth, Reality... and probably 'Killing' anyone and anything that IS moving toward them.  Making this mistake is the False Idol that Jesus spoke of, and the 'Tribal' religions that cause so many genocidal wars.  Making this mistake is when 'religion' becomes 'dry as dust,' or, 'a social club with a thin veneer of reality,' whether this fatal mistake is made by a christian, jew, scientist or atheist, liberal or conservative.  

The US left, Liberals, are mostly Fundamentalists.  They believe they know the Truth - education, science, equality, rationality... whatever.

The US right conservatives are mostly Fundamentalists - 'christian' (they couldn't be more anti-Christlike), terrified of change, 'religiously' selfish in principal... whatever.

The one in a million Great Humans are so exactly because they never make the Deadly Error of becoming Fundamentalist in their Belief. 

All Fundamentalist make themselves less than human, sub-human, truly 'Dead,' Dead to moving closer to Reality, Truth... they surrender their 'Image' as children of the Creator by taking on their Fundamentalists beliefs as Truth, Reality, rather than Facing, Embracing that their Religion is at best a means of best living even though we can never know Truth, Reality being the imperfect beings that we are... and that their Religion can, and needs to, constantly improve, move more toward the Truth, Reality.

Fundamentalism is clinical delusion, insanity, mental illness.  It is divorce from reality, truth... that we can never know Reality, Truth.

Fundamentalism of the left, the liberals, academic elites... is destroying all life on earth materially and destroying much human goodness by ignoring the moral limits and boundaries the human needs for Health and Survival.

Fundamentalism on the right, the conservatives... is destroying life regionally - christian Fundamentalists exterminating a million in Iraq, torturing millions in Palestine, literally trying to bring about Armageddon.  muslim fundamentalists are killing thousands in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria.... jewish fundamentalists are driving much of the US christian Fundamentalist insanity and mid-east Islamic Fundamentalist insanity. Fundamentalists on the right are thereby moving us to global annihilation by nuclear war.