Re: #2: Religion

Evidence of spirit and/or a thinking nature? I think the evidence for that is all around. It's behind your eyelids. Beady eyed little men in dresses pushing moral do's and dont's lists is a sad sad attempt to accept and recognize spirit. I'm not about that. It's not about that.

And that's all I wanted to say. I think you're doing the same thing I did, in wanting to distance yourself from the fundementalist mumbo-jumbo so much that you ignorantly give up on the idea of spirit without any real evidence to do so whatsoever, and a whole bunch of gut feelings and emotions and dreams and questions, etc calling you towards it.

As far as ethics go I think you feed the hungry, doctor the sick, help the poor, you know, the most basic stuff and anything else is cultural bullshit one way or the other.

Occam's razor - simplest solution
is probably right

And what's more simple then something that's been around since we have, in the idea of spirit and a thinking nature, that each one of us feels and experiences in some way at some point in our lives. I think modern science has Occam rolling over in his grave

melvin