Jul 21 2012  Is Religion a Rorschach Test?  Religious texts can
be interpreted in an almost infinite variety of ways. What do
different religious beliefs tell us about the believers?  Talk
to a hundred different believers about what God is like, and
you’ll get a hundred different answers.  Take, as the most
familiar example to most Westerners, Christianity. Ask one
Christian about what God is like, and she’ll tell you of a
strict, punitive authority figure: a creator and enforcer of
rules, with clear ideas of right and wrong, a firm expectation
that everybody should follow them — and harsh, intractable
punishment for those who don’t toe the line.  Ask another
Christian, and you get a different picture entirely: a loving
parent, occasionally firm but mostly gentle and supportive,
giving you lots of latitude to find your own path, who only
wants you to be happy and to be your own best self.  Other
Christians — notably deists and theistic evolutionists — see God
as a sort of hands-off manager: initially founding