Alison wrote:

In contrast to Louise I think beliefs which lack compassion can be criticised equally whether or not they are part and parcel of a religious world view, but in many cases they are imposed on that religion, rather

than

imposed by it IMHO.

I agree about the imposed on rather than imposed by bit. But that doesn't change the fact that religion comes as a huge cultural package with hundreds or thousands of years of accumulated baggage. It must be terribly hard for someone who is religious to start cutting and chopping away at what they have been led to believe. But then we're back to my dislike of organised religion.

Louise