20:35w/ matching suspenders:
I think the Bible should have been titled "How to live in a society". This would probably have prevented a lot of confusion. I think it is a document on how to leave peacefully and enhance the probability of your community remaining alive for many years. The references to eternal life are about your biological record living on in your descendants, and the faith needed is the faith that being nice and not killing people will end up making your society nicer in the long run.
Maybe people wouldn't listen to instructions on how to preserve their society if given in a straightforward manner, so they are presented as directives from God and company. These days, laws and education are supposed to hold our society together. Learn the right way to live from schoolbooks, instead of parables. The trials and judgement are handled by lawyers instead of an omniscient god. There may not be a right way to live, but it would be a nice place if everyone followed the same rules. Law is probably not as effective as religion in creating this situation.
Things about that trip to the dentist last Monday: Hearing "Oops. Wrong tool. They all look the same!" . The dentist accidentally (thats a bad start to any sentence) sucking my medulla oblongata into the vacuum drain tube that gets stuck in your mouth. Me gagging very hard immediately. The dentist and her assistant discussing how she was having hot and cold flashes. "You're around all these menopausal women. Hormones boiling over everywhere," she said. I also heard about her ex-sister in law, who lives in Beverly Hills and did things like give her this absolutely huge dress as a gift (and insult).