Welcome back Rev.

Here in Oz we are being visited by Karen Armstrong who has published a book "The Human Quest for the Divine". I believe she is Canadian and a religious leader/researcher of some sort. I heard an interview with her in which she rejected the notion of divinity and states that all reigious texts were written by humans themselves. Of course I have no problem with this point of view, however Ms. Armstrong seemed to also say that whilst she sympathises with this idea, she appears to have a religious belief as well.

How can this be so? Surely the whole point of religion (of any sort) is to ensure the the followers of certain rites, dogma and ideas, and have great privileges and entitlements now, and even after death. All religious beliefs contain some measure of teaching that our life on this planet is not all there is, and, providing we have been 'good' we will have life in the hereafter.

It surely is simply not possible to blithely decide that the afterlife sounds good without accepting the existence of the supernatural realm of which it is a part. Or is it possible to pick out the good bits when the difficult bits take too much effort?

Rev-I also suggest in answer to your question, that in fact there are no practical implications in knowing that god and reality are the same. It is a matter of belief. You would believe that you know that it is so and act accordingly--- I would believe that I know it is not and not do much about it.

We are not able to prove who is correct!