MY DAD WAS VERY SMART. He taught me two lessons, in particular, that have stuck fast: 1.) Always carry a spare car key; and 2.) Don't take your religion to extremes. In fact, he hauled me straight to the locksmith to have a spare cut when he found I didn't have one.  I bless him for the first lesson, every time I stand outside my locked car door looking in.

But is has taken me YEARS to understand what he meant by the second. I think he was saying something like: "don't let your religious fervor lead you into hurtful behavior", e.g., thoughts, words or deeds that damage you or someone else, done with the assumption that God is standing by clapping His hands in approval.

 

Yeah, you can damage yourself with religion. Just look at the deluded people who followed Jim Jones to the death. God didn't tell us to do violence to others in his name, but to love and reason with them. I listened to a preacher talk about herding gays into a pen and waiting for them to die off, like a group of stray dogs waiting to be euthanized.  This kind of talk is UNCHRISTLIKE to the max and makes me ill.