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I had a pretty liberal education in the

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sensitive but exposed to many things

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science was the main thing you got

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exposed to in my early life from my

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father's side my mother is is a Roman

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Catholic so I also got exposure to

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religious literature religious symbolism

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I was never forced to participate I

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didn't go to Sunday School and didn't do

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any of the things that a normal Catholic

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child is supposed to go through but

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about exposure to it without pressure

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and without prejudice either but by

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choice as I grew up as I went to

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university at 17 i I didn't maintain an

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interest in religion it did at least a

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self-reflective level it didn't mean

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much to me I was too involved in science

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and technology to have a continuing

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interest in that what did remain though

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was an interest in Europe's medieval

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churches like Colin's Cathedral here

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behind me an enormous church which took

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the over 600 years to build and started

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in the 13th century and I used to visit

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displaces with the excuse at least with

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the narrative I had within my own mind

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that I was interested in the

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architecture and I would go to these

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places and see the faithful in prayer

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and this is a story I tell in the book

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modern allegory and I would wonder how

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these otherwise rational people could

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reconcile the reason with their

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religious faith it was always a question

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in the foreground of my mind when I

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would go to churches which I out do

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often and then at some point not so long

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ago in my mid to late 30s I had an

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epiphany in that very cathedral there I

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was inside with no specific agenda no no

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special reason for being there just

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enjoying the vibe of that place and

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joined the building

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I was looking at a large crucifix right

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above the shrine of the three things for

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which Collins cathedral is world famous

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it's something happened to me I

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experienced the kind of a shift in

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perspective as if I had been transported

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to another cognitive space it was not an

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intellectual thing it was an insight of

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understanding that they couldn't put in

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words but the implication of that inside

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as I described in the book was that it

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became very clear to me why the

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Christian myth is what it is it couldn't

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be anything else I understood it and

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that insight sort of validated it and at

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the same time it shaped rated to pieces

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because I understood that what the

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religious myth was pointing to in fact

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had nothing to do with the literal

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explanation the literal description of

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the myth or the literal interpretation

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of its symbols so it was an epiphany

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that at the same time confirmed and

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shattered the Christian myth to me in my

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understanding of religion my felt