I love your idea of returning to the woods for meditation, contemplation, and to place ourselves in our longer evolutionary heritage. I wonder if all of your analysis is targeted properly. There are fundamentalist atheists, fundamentalist scientists, and fundamentalist political activists. We need some how to help people escape their present moment in time to see events in a much larger context.

Many of the authors I have read including Karen Armstrong approach an evolutionary notion of faith. Jesus, for example, regularly criticized the conservative religious interpretations of his contemporaries. The Apostles Peter and Paul were willing to jettison some Jewish practices as the faith moved into the Greco-Roman world.

There is a clear development in the ideas of Jewish religion reflected in a diversity of perspectives that change in different historical circumstances.

What is most interesting about your piece is the call for Wilderness experiences. Those are often places of vision, prophetic insight, and rebirth. Today we are fortunate to have access to the great teachings of all of the world's religious traditions. The challenge is to hold on to the key message of personal transformation, compassion, and peacemaking while letting go of beliefs that are no longer helpful in the twenty first century. Obviously we have a long way to go.