I really sometimes wonder what I would have thought of predestination if it just hadn't been a tenet of How Things Were. Like, I find most forms of Western Christian Mysticism kind of charming because I learned about them in college. I might have thought the same thing about predestination if it hadn't been such a bug in my ass this whole time.

And I agree, of course. Most religions do boil down to 'Don't Be a Dick', which is why I get so frustrated when that's the one thing people DON'T get out of them!

I also think it's difficult to hide too much in fiction. For me anyway. I'm sure there are people out there who are all 'I can totally write stories about things I wouldn't do set in worlds my beliefs have no authority over!' But, you know, I wouldn't want to work that way. That would take most of the things I enjoy about stories so much out of the process entirely. And please ignore this bucket of faces. Are you using that nose?