...there is something wrong with any spirituality that does not inspire selfless concern for others

There must be no coercion in matters of faith!

A science can diagnose a cancer and can even find a cure for it, but it can't, and a scientist will be the first to say, it's can't help you to deal with the stress and disappointment and terror that comes with a diagnosis, and nor can it help you to die well, like Socrates, kindly, not railing against faith, but in possession of your own death. For these imponderable questions people have turned to mythos.

Buddhists talk about nirvana in very much the same terms as monotheists describe God.

Religious ideas and practices take root not because they are promoted by forceful theologians, nor because they can be shown to have a sound historical or rational basis, but because they are found in practice to give the faithful a sense of sacred transcendence.

We are what we are because of the hard work, insights and achievements of countless others.

We should probably all pause to confront our past from time to time, because it changes its meaning as our circumstances alter.