Sam Harris

I suggest Mike's posting warrants further discussion. Loyd Geering ("The World to Come"', Polebridge Press, 1999) expands the ideas discussd by Mike. "'Like all earlier cultures, global culture will depend for its goals, values, motivation and creative energy on the possession of a religious dimension"' - and much more mined from a rich basis of scholarship.
Thanks, Mike, for opening up this subject.
Jasper.

no, not a dogmatic religious convention.

dogma destroys spirituality.

we got nowhere in the Dark Ages

we needed the reformation to remove the dogma, for the rennisance to happen, and even then the Church was in opposition to a percieved loss of “power”

Power corrupts.  Organized religions with power are corrupt.