said, "Isn't the masculinization of the Deity the greatest blasphemy of all?"

Amen brother.

And also the humanization of the Deity (if any)... The Deity (if any) of the big bang, a gazillion nebulae, quantum physics, etc. etc. dwarfed into a desert warlord who wants all his male subjects to be big bad warriors... It's so absurd that it baffles me that anyone buys it.

said, "I would like to point out as well, the undercurrent of mother goddess worship in Catholicism in South and Central America, which was transferred from ancient indigenous deities to Mary after the Catholic Church forced conversion there."

The same was true to southern European Catholicism, with the emphasis on Mary.

Azathoth said, "f you want a progressive religon I suggest you try a newer one made by people with more modern sensibilities." Judging by your handle, you are probably knowledgable about just such religions. I quite like Wicca, where there is a God and a Goddess...

Back to my first paragraph - Catholicism has Mary, but in the bleak Protestant north of Europe the revival of the Goddess took place (in her own right, and not in a Marian type role), and probably at least in part as a reaction against the Christianity of those parts.

There does seem, going back o Azathoth, a movement in some quarters to recognize religion as human-made, and that therefore we can experiment and play with the forms and have them suit our moder selves, instead of wrestling with weird injunctions from the desert of 3000 years ago...

I think the reason divorce rates have declined is that fewer people are getting married, just living together. And those who do marry, do so after a series of informal trial marriages, which, since they didn't last, should be counted as informal divorces.

That reminds me of another of our built-in's that foster religion - as herd animals, we look to a leader. The bigger the better - and being invisible is no hindrance. We now live in huge societies with no personal connection to our modern leaders (and warlords), so we follow an invisible, silent leader/father.

Robert Roy Britt

Editorial Director

LiveScience.com

– Mon Nov 24, 9:48 am ET

More people believe in aliens and ghosts than in God, a new survey finds, according to a British newspaper.

The survey, however, was done by a marketing firm in conjunction with the release of an X-Files DVD, and details of how the poll was conducted were not reported in the Daily Mail. Survey questions, depending on how they are written, can greatly skew results, along with how subjects are sampled.

That said, the poll of 3,000 people found that 58 percent believe in the supernatural, including paranormal encounters, while 54 percent believe God exists. Women were more likely than men to believe in the supernatural and were also more likely to visit a medium.

Indeed, humans are prone to believing in things they can neither see nor find logical evidence for.

URL below & in my sig.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081124/sc_livescience/peoplesaidtobelieveinaliensandghostsmorethangod;_ylt=AvccbZGCUc0Yvb70HFXsfR2s0NUE

In Quebec Canada, no religious body can provide a legal marriage - only whatever religious ceremony they want. All people (this includes gays) get married by a civil servant (or someone who has applied for a one-off officiant status because the couple wants to be married by their favorite uncle...or religious personage) in a civil union. Because the 'legal marriage' people are on about is a civil contract, and churches have no business being involved. They got marrying rights as a matter of convenience - AS REPS OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THIS ONE MATTER. But it's not longer convenient, and the two kinds of marriage - legal and religious - have got confused in people's minds and need to be forcibly separated.

All hail Quebec! (Not that long ago, one of the most priest-ridden societies on the planet.)

and it works just fine.

Well, except the instrument panel - so I never know how fast I'm going or if I have any gas. And sometimes I have to enter by way of the passenger door... But it RUNS good.

Aside from the first season of Grey's, I've seen none of the programs discussed. (Out in the driveway trying to get into my car.) More and more the TV is just for checking CNN and, of course, Stewart, Colbert & Maher.

Brava!!

Yeah, I heard those statements by Obama in his press conference re his "security team", and remember similar from his campaign. Worrisome. Afghanistan has always been an impossible quagmire for invaders, and it doesn't seem likely that anything will work out differently for the U.S. A whole different approach (no, I have no bright ideas) is needed. Ignoring Bin Ladin might be as effective as searching him down and KILLing him (I was most uneasy hearing Obama saying *KILL* - how many other people will die to make that happen?), and encouraging Pakistan to root out terrorists on their territory - at least as much a threat to them as to anybody else. Of course, Pakistan isn't exactly a united society standing in unison against the terrorists...

The bit about your mother's name spelled wrong on your birth certificate reminded me - my birth certificate is a total concoction, claiming my birth from people to whom I am not related - that's how adoptions were handled in my day. I find it mildly amusing (I know who my birth parents were, and there's no trauma involved), but it's accepted at face value.

"Welcome to Salon. Hope this is your first post of many!"

Don't encourage them! (The "hard questions" indeed!)

Jesus and tin-foil, hallelujah.