Pain and gain ...

... Tim Parks in pain.

... Meditation rescued me from misanthropy.

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I like this: "It rose from depths I knew nothing of. And to tap in to it, I hadn't had to surrender my reason to any belief structure." The focus on "belief structures" I think can be an impediment to engagement with God.

But I like this less: "When the atheists take religion to task for its absurd beliefs or for the damage it has done, we have no choice but to agree." Many of the beliefs are not absurd at all once you explore them as you might a poem. I reviewed The God Delusion. Richard Dawkins's understanding of religion isn't even shallow.