Final interpretation

The stunning conclusion to a stunning expose.

I was raised by an agnostic and born-again Wesleyan ex-Catholic, did undergrad at a university run by Dominican sisters, then married a Latter Day Saint. My father did not attend any ceremonies or sermons, and almost avoided such events held in a religious setting like the plague. He believes in God but, also, in the strict separation of church and state. He had a fairly decent set of morals he passed to me and I believe myself to be a good person. My mother trooped me through multiple churches as she attempted to find a house of God that suited her better than the strict Franciscan Catholic upbringing taught her. She should have read this book. It would have made her venture much shorter and a few mistakes less. I witnessed the sermons, masses, and preachings of multiple fathers, bishops, priests, pastors, etc; as well as, the faith of the agnostic. I grew up believing something more than me kept control over the vast everything, but held nothing fundamentally close to my heart. I wandered through religious studies on my own through high school and lost a belief structure (it was just a general concept that didn't really matter on any given day, I had bigger fish to fry with passing calculus). 

My theology classes and surrounding presence of the convent opened me to explore what I believed in again. The sisters taught the sciences, maths, and humanities classes as well as the expected theology. Their open tolerance to all the religions and the pursuit of knowledge of any kind really clicked. Then, I married a Latter Day Saint and experienced the closest monotheist religion I could accept. They never tried to save me and were true to their faith in church and outside of it. I have since continued to study the world's religions as I have never been satisfied with the monotheist approach and duplicity of the practitioners. 

And now I have read Karen Armstrong's book. I still maintain this is a book that everyone should read at minimum once (if not repeatedly through their life). The direction that all of the Western religions are heading just prove the thesis. I will continue to stick with my Vedic Dharma, but at least I feel I have made the most informed study on God I could.