OK, your intent is 200% clear, do not worry about that. Just that I had a bit of a spate that genuinely upset me on sfn a couple of weeks back and do not want a rerun.
But sorry, I am older than you and so whilst I was on one of my 'turns' and was captain of a small archery team at the same time actually WAS Robin Hood. so fine I'll let you have Little John if you like... At least I did not go for that other bloke Triar F***!
@Brian explicit and erudite retort as always Brian. I hope made it clear that It is not my intention to impress by own 'belief' system on anyone. 'Fact, I shared a house with 3 Mormons in the 70s ( I called them Elder Berry, Elder Rado, and the older guy Elder Statesman ) these guys were übersmooth, soft-sell pretty eery Christianity Cajolers, I don't adhere to any indoctrination, emotive, soft sell or otherwise.
Myself, I have been through enforced Catholicism, agnosticism, Atheism and even thought I was Christ himself as well as John the Baptist, Buddah, Robin hood and all his Merry men....that's lunacy for you. Sure, most modern religions places worship have evolved, a modern Church standing on the grounds of an Historic Pagan Place, and so on.
Each to their own I say, live and let live. I would no more attempt to tell you what to, or what not to believe...any more than I would take off my Cross, if it offended ...my only Mantra: God is everything
OK, Ron and I are on the case. Religion is important and I have no prejudices for or against most. Like devil worshippers who prefer newborn babies to foie gras are not my cup of tea, let us put it that way. A quarter of my original study of social anthropology roughly speaking looked at beliefs, rituals and so on under the mantle of 'religion'. I have continued to be interested and have all due respect for everybodies' beliefs. I have learned a few things that are important for my own moral guidance from parts of several world religions and some more than others. At the same time I am deeply offended by people telling me what I am; for instance that I am fundamentally a Christian because I have learned some of the principles of the vision of peace held by the Society of Friends. I am, in fact, far more profoundly influenced by the teachings of Gautama Siddharta but I am not a Buddhist. For some extraordinary reason my then two year old daughter took one look at a small Buddha in my office and has since stood in front of a gigantic one in Thailand (then just turned three) and without any parental influence has always declared god a 'made up story' but the teachings of Siddharta are what she follows. Not my wife either, her uncle is an emeritus RC bishop, her gay brother and sister with an Islamic husband have been long since disowned - had they believed to begin with.
So what's it all about? It is what we need. If we need to believe in order to have that as a support then fine. Just as long as we refrain from telling everybody that they should/must/do that as well. I have tattoos of Kal Marx and Lenin on the shoulder I broke and am fed up about the scars through the lot. However it has been amusing hold conversations with medical people who have tried not to deface them but also discuss them out of curiosity. That, in my way of being, suits me best. I do not need to convert anybody, if they want that and have questions I attempt to answer.
So here we are with an old Germanic festival that has been lumped together with the Jewish Pesah (Passover) and labelled what we are supposed to be celebrating. However, if we really scrutinised Roman practises in that part of the world then I believe we would find what is now Saturday more precise - but OK mere detail. I just think looking a bit closer at the world and its infinite variety then simply accepting that allows us to make the pagan symbol of fertility, the hare, into the Easter bunny without offending anybody and the same goes for burqas, crucifixes and all the rest of it. Had my say, expect to be told just how wrong I am (fine) but please, please, please people do not tell me WHAT I am because then you are treading on sensitive toes. Happy Easter holiday for all of that.