Hi T, been awhile, have been looking but been either unintrested in the subject matter or more possibly to burnt out to care. Anyway, what do you think about taking what is good about religions, adapting these to a humanist philosophy, and chucking the rest, just as an experiment for beginers? Is there such a code currently in place and operating sucessfully anywhere that you are aware of? --------- Yeah, it has been awhile. Good to see you. Found your fortune yet?

Wow. Broad questions. The problem with religions is the fact that they're outdated and unrealistic in their demands. I remember being a kid in Sunday school and being told that humans were these flesh containers with a soul. I was told that all people were faulted and inclined to be evil and lazy, thus we always had to repent, and maintain a "one on one" relationship with God. None of it made the least amount of sense to me. Imagine, telling a child that they were inherently faulted, and there was nothing they could do about it. It's the beginings of a life time of guilt and repression. We are who we are. As I got older, my religion classes preached that "God wants us to be natural." Thus, any unnatural solutions were regarded as evil, because it meant artificially changing oneself meant that God's gift of life wasn't good enough. Well again, telling this to a mere child encourages him/her to accept their lot in life, because that's the way God intended it. These religion classes made me feel ashamed to question, and find my own answers. But of course, I'm being one sided here. Religion is good in that it provides a sense of social solidarity. People take comfort in knowing that they belong to something greater than themselves. Kind of like going to a football game and knowing that there's a whole city cheering for a single team. It's undeniable that religions have always been powerful in their ability to unite people. I think this unity is attainable in an atheist society. Human potential is really all we have, and faith in humanity could replace faith in a divine being. Is there such a code in place?? None that I'm aware of so far. Again, I fear corruption would seep into such a system. You know, all those glory hounds that just get in the way, when honest people try to create a utopia free of capitalism and injustice.

P.S. I know what you mean. Petty quibling over evolutionary and creationist facts that's been prevalent on the forum isn't everyones cup of tea. Time to move on to something more constructive eh?