Religion is what one makes of it. One thing that gave me an immense amount of respect for Thomas Jefferson was learning about his religious views. [1] In a nuts

Religion is what one makes of it. One thing that gave me an immense amount of respect for Thomas Jefferson was learning about his religious views. [1] In a nutshell, he took from religion what made sense to him, while also being aware of the tendency for later iterations to be politicized in various ways or for things to go from mundane to mythical over repeated tellings. He even created the 'Jefferson Bible' [2] which was made by quite literally cutting and pasting various sections of the Bible, across multiple translations, into his own version which made sense to him. The reason this gave me immense respect for him is that this was done at a time when, at least in our version of what the past was like, dutiful obedience to religious orthodoxy was still critical. And he simply disregarded such norms and said and did what made sense to him. That takes amazing strength of character. In any case the point I make is that trying to find some truth in an 'orthodoxy' that is about as orthodox as a puddle of muddied water is nonsensical. What we have left of religion are pieces that have been bent, contorted, and spun over millennia. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Thomas_Jefferson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Thomas_Jeff... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible