In writing the intro I came across a diary documenting a felow Kossack's conversion, one would say journey, from belief to atheism. You can read it here. I certainly sympathize with the diarist, and love the comment someone made, that the diarist traded a God for a cat. Good trade. But what I also find notable about the diary is how unpredictable it is, what finally makes us reject the comfort of religion and a predetermined belief in a heirarchical universe for what is perhaps the more freethinking option of doubt or non-belief. I don't think anyone could predict it beforehand
I might actually call it a swerve.
Which leads us to a book that should (and I hope) will change many people's lives, not just mine: The Swerve, by Steven Greenblatt. It is about the re-discovery of a long poem that literally changed the world. And, I like to think, humanity awoke from a long nightmare filled with superstitious dreads, to the morning of reason and rational thought. It was finally morning in Christendom
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