And your first paragraph is nonsensical.
“Half a century ago I spent 3 years preparing to be ordained in the clergy — which I did not do because my teachers had taught me that our religions had begun to degenerate into a fixation with war, hatred, revenge, killing.”

“our religions HAD BEGUN to degenerate etc etc??”
Ever heard of the Inquisition? The Reformation?
War, hatred, revenge and killing have been waged in the name of religion since ever there was any kind of “religion” AND STILL IS!

And your second paragraph: “And so it went with the ancient Athenians who continue to practice the religious ceremonies in which no sane person still believed.” Ed, “ancient Athenians” cannot continue to do anything. They’re all dead now. Happened a long time ago. What are you talking about? I looked at some of the dozens of links to links and still don’t know.

What on earth is the use of your article other than perhaps to advertise something? Perhaps Yahoo? So the long and the short of it is that you gave up a career in the clergy to go into advertising and you’re using the word “compassion” to hook people? I’m sorry to be so hard on you but that seems to be the message. Now, let me try to show some compassion and ask, “Could you please clarify?”