Yes, and after all, we were supposedly given free will, no?....

Yes, and after all, we were supposedly given free will, no?. Arguably that was greatest gift of all *if* there was any being to give it. I would not give that up just to get into a "heaven" of subservience.

Now the following is NOT meant to cause offense, but it is my view so I will state it:

IMO those willing to prostrate themselves in active participation in any religion are more likely to exhibit a degree of one of: naive, narrow-minded, overwhelmed by life, in denial about their life or lacking their own moral compass.

I don't bedgrudge them their right to "practise" religion, just as they should not begrudge me the right not to.

As long the religious acolytes keep their noses out of government, which I prefer to be secular, and don't try to impose their beliefs on other members of society who are not doing anyone or anything any harm by living their "unrighteous" lives, I think we can all get along until judgement day.

I think the early churches did a good job of knitting cohesive societies together in a time of fractures villages, superstition and a need to make men serve the king and country in fear of hellfire and brimstone.

But I think that as the average IQ has risen around the world (I HOPE it has, but I do wonder when I step into the malls!); and people recognized that everything on this planet is an interconnected web of life and that we all have a duty of care to everything, then a man in a pulpit threatening eternal damnation is not required to make people get up off their arses and be good global citizens.