Reading "A Model of Religion and Death" by Derek Pyne.

He is trying to make sense of why fear of death is strongest in those with lower levels of religiousity. And  whay it is low in those no religiousity (atheists) and very high religiousity.

I think the take home mesage is, in my words:

"Atheists have everything to gain in life and nothing to lose in death."

"Theists who think they’ll go to heaven have little to nothing to…

Just a small thing that has troubled me for some time - it may seen like a joke, but I'm genuinely curious.

In the catholic faith (the only one I know), god is always referred to as a man (He, the Father, et cetera...) and the only woman prayed to is Mary (not a godess, but as the mother of Jesus, son of god). This always appeared to me to be a way to make women into second class members of the church (that and a whole lot of other things in the catholic…

I was raised in a catholic family. We had attended church every Sunday for as long as I remembered. Both my parents were catholic from birth too.

I was sent to a catholic primary and secondary schools. Being a nerdy kid, I never liked the blokeish (hyper-masculine) behaviour of the students at my high school, preferring to spent my lunchtimes in the library or chess club. The teacher to student violence was appalling and made going there an unpleasant…