A friend writes ... You know that I am an atheist, or at best, an agnostic, ... I should like to go back to the simple belief I had in childhood, ... I am a product of a 'church' primary school, and the knowledge base, plus the experience of ritual is there. Nevertheless, I find that my mind has rejected Christianity, along with organised religion en mass Because I place myself in what I call the "Christian Tradition", my readers often assume that I'm obligated to defend "Christianity" and they expect me to attempt to "convert" them. This is very far from the case. I was born into this tradition. I cannot change that any more than I can transform myself into a zebra. The Christian Tradition goes back at least 3,500 years. We find ourselves at one particular point in its unfolding history. Because it is the very nature of "religion" to pretend that it is the guardian of eternal truth, the historical nature of its dogma is routinely swe...