We are all tempted to create a God of our own making, who will uphold the status quo and baptize our values as God’s definitive word. When God challenges our way of life and the religious and cultural values we hold dear, we are tempted to run away in search of a new god—a god of our own making—who will support our privileges and prejudices and... See more

And maybe there never was. But at least we maintained the illusion better before. We used to be told how to live, provided lore that outlined where the lines were drawn between right and wrong, and granted something resembling safety and stability in exchange.** Yes, I’m talking about the glue of society: religion. **“Literally false but... See more

The problem, however, is this: religions cannot be privatized precisely because they make truth claims, and the truth, by its very nature, is a public reality. It would be ludicrous to say, “I have a personal conviction that in a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.” And it would be

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