What an insightful column! I haven't been so enlightened outside of the scriptures in ages. The comments on Aristotle opened the door for me to a better understanding of the phrase "...they teach for doctrines the commandments of men..."(JSH 1:19).

This column gave me a minor paradigm shift. Now I get to study and ponder it out and see where it leads me.

Thanks!

Thank you, for me it helped me to understand why I feel like I do.

Thank you! Thank You! You have brought me hope that my inactive daughter will one day return. She has been taught the Gospel and lived it and I now have more hope that she will return to what she knows to be true even if she doesn't know it now.

Thank you, Orson.

This "deep religion" is where the REAL brainwashing goes on!

Your children don't even KNOW that they are being brainwashed at a subconscious level.

Hmmm, Anonymous has an interesting perception of Orson's column. If brainwashing is the term used for teaching our children values, beliefs, concepts of right and wrong, ethics, manners, etc., then I suspect the case can be made that all children of all ages have been brainwashed by the significant adults in their lives (whether it be their parents, older siblings, or someone else). I prefer to see it as the teachings where the real religion resides inside. It is that truth resonates with the Light of Christ that resides within all of us, regardless of our conscious awareness of the truthfulness of the teaching.

Thank you Orson for a great column and an insightful, even inspired imho, teaching that resonates with my inner and deep religion.

NC Mom, I echo your expression, I too have more hope now for my inactive adult children who still defend their youthful faith in spite of their current lifestyles.

Mr. Card, you seem to claim a privileged position to see OTHER people's "deep religion" without your own getting in the way.

Has it ever occurred to you that your perception of other people's "deep religion" is in fact a projection and fantasy of YOUR OWN MAKING?

And the reason they get angry and passionate (panicky) is NOT because you have discovered their "true" beliefs, but because they can tell that you are misunderstanding and distorting by imposing your own views on them.

They are angry and annoyed because they are dealing with a self-righteous Mormon whose beliefs are ultimately beyond discourse - because "testimony" is so absurdly idiosyncratic!

They are frustrated by trying to converse with someone who feigns interest, but who is really judging and condemning without truly listening and understanding.

And your children are not influenced SOLELY by your own religious beliefs, whether "deep" or not! Pretty naive of you to assume so.

By the way, you completely missed out on Plato because your preconceived notions blinded you to his main point. Your party-line criticism of "Platonic Christianity" is tired, worn-out, and wrong-headed. Look again.

Cheers.

Here are a few supporting thoughts from another deep thinker:

"The religion which another man would give us we cannot take as a gift. There is no Christliness without endeavour. The truth which another man has won from nature or from life in not our truth unitl we have lived it. Only that becomes real or helpful to any man which has cost the sweat of his brow, the effort of his brain, or the anguish of his soul..

There are some men whose untamable independence leads them into paths of danger simply as a revolt from tiresome conventionalities. They sin because they will not be tied to the apron strings of society. For these lawless, turbulent, self-defiant spirits, there is always great hope; for when they find themselves entangled in the conventionalities of evil, tied to the apron strings of the devil, they are likely to break away again, and lead lives all the more worthy, because they have found the path of wisdom and strength for themselves.

To his class belong the subjects of the great conversions, the real brands who have snatched themselves from the real burnings."

From "The Strength of Being Clean" by David Starr Jordan