Most of my questions have gone unanswered, so I'll not waste any more time with this thread. Before I leave, however, I feel as if I should explain why I feel the way I do, though it will likely bore some here.
I was born into an American/Italian Catholic family. I went all through the usual rites of baptism, first communion & confirmation. My grandmother, driving herself in a 1947 Desoto, rarely missed mass on Sunday. Although my mom & dad weren't church goers or devout worshipers, they chose to send me to Catholic elementary school where I had no one but nuns as teachers for 8 years, with catechism as a subject during all of them. I also spent a year as an altar boy.
From there, I enrolled in a Catholic high school where I was taught & disciplined by the Irish Christian Brothers. Some form of religious education was a yearly subject, but my main curriculum consisted of prep courses heavy in the sciences with a college major of biology in mind.
Next up, was the University of Dayton, another Catholic educational institution run by the Marianists -- the brothers and priests of the Society of Mary. There I majored in biology but was also required to take theology for the first two years. I also took courses in logic.
Sometime through all this, getting more educated in both religion & science was starting to have an effect, mainly because I also learned how to think. For that, logic played a big role. As I gained more objective scientific knowledge my "Faith" based beliefs in Catholicism started to wan. And the more I examined other religions, I saw the same flaws. That was 60 years ago.
Watching the likes of the TV preachers & soul-saving evangelists remind of the proverbial snake oil salesmen. It's sad that so many older folks, thinking they will be 'saved from the fires of hell,' contribute their money to them.
Now...I expect lightning to strike me shortly, condemning me to an afterlife in hell. It's supposedly even hotter there than it is in Phoenix on a July afternoon except there's no AC.
You all play nice now.