About the Author: Gregory Bentall
Greg Bentall has a broad range of interests, including history, politics, and science. He believes that nothing can be understood apart from its historical development. Science is not a body of accepted findings, but a historical journey to progressively comprehend the workings of nature. Religious thought must be understood by means of the same historical development process. He has blogged on the interface of science, politics, and religion.
Greg is a skeptic who questions everything, and seeks to embrace new ideas and constructs.
Greg has reinvented himself many times. At one point, he was working as a financial manager in a social service agency while volunteering his pastoral services to a small congregation in the Wine Country of Northern California. When he took a new job in the casino industry, he told the congregation that since most of them were in the winery business, he felt obligated to do something 'respectable' by taking the casino job.
Now retired, Greg has time to pursue his love of writing and philosophy.
So much of popular religion is simply a collection of ancient superstitions and old campfire stories. Even Pope Francis has told the Church that God is not a 'wizard.' God is not our ever-present nanny or 'fairy godmother' whose task it is to comfort and protect us, and to shield us from any danger, discomfort, or disappointment.
So much of popular religion is simply a collection of ancient superstitions and old campfire stories. Even Pope Francis has told the Church that God is not a "wizard," and we need to stop thinking that God is a magical being.