I guess it makes you a little more religious.

Was it just luck or is there something more that decides if you are going to make it?

A religion that demands absolutely irrefutable obedience, is anything but religion.

There is a basic terrorist germ in fundamentalism – a germ that is purely genocidal. This germ drives the psyche of mentally unstable individuals in the path of chaos, which actually is presented to them by the fundamentalists as the path of God.

As they perform this ritual, I almost have to turn away, thinking again what a boomeranging, out-of-body experience it is to watch a religious childhood from the outside, when before I was in the very marrow of it.

Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope on Thy name…and open the eyes of our hearts, that we
may know Thee.”
“We beseech Thee, Lord and Master, to be our help and succour. Save those among us who are in
tribulation; have mercy on the lowly; lift up the fallen; show Thyself to those in need; heal the sick; turn
again the wanderers of Thy people; feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort
the faint-hearted. Let all nations know that Thou art God alone, and that Jesus Christ is Thy Son, and
that we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture.”
“We praise Thee who art able to do these and better things than these, through Jesus Christ the High
Priest and Guardian of our souls, through whom be glory and majesty to Thee, both now and
throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.