A tad chilly this morning. It's the first time since the double glazing was installed that I couldn't see out the living room windows for the frost on the outside. zit was a lovely day though and the fog cleared quickly. I thought I would head out to Maitland and back through Knapdale but as we headed along Hamilton St we could see the fog drifting across that way and every turn of the pedals the temperature seemed to drop so we took a side street and headed back into town and down the river road. It is lovely biking along there listening to the tui singing in the trees. Then it was out through Charlton and around the half marathon in reverse.
i have noticed that Ron bikes behind me, drafting, all the time until we come to a hill when he powers past pretending he is Nairo Quintana. Or when there is someone to see us, then he leads.
I must say I am feeling better with every ride. Nearly 29 km today easily  in under 2 hours

Belief vs religion

Sometimes travelling by bike leaves you open to philosophising.
After the Manchester bombing I was thinking about the difference between belief and religion and religion has a lot to answer for.
Belief can be anything and anybody. We all have some system of belief which governs our lives. Some call it faith and link it to a god, others think it comes from themselves and it is just decency as human beings.
Religion on the other hand is a man made thing. (And here I use man as a generic term for a human.)
It doesn't matter what the god is called - Allah, Yahweh, The One God, The three in one, Zeus, Buddha, - the name is made by man and the rules that go with that religion are man made.
 Christians actually have hedged their bets because they believe in one god and then say that it is the father, the son, and the holy ghost, and intercession can be made through Mary, mother of Jesus. Sounds pretty polytheist to me.
Then of course each religion has to have priests who keep the lower class believers on the straight and narrow - and sometimes the path is very narrow. It is all about control.
The con is such that the conned think that it is their idea that they wear 'modest' clothing, that  hair is covered in case it should drive men mad with desire. What a load of cobblers - men should be able to control themselves, whether a woman is dressed or not!
I noticed that Melania Trump did not cover her hair when she went to the Middle East where that is the norm, but when she was in Rome and met the Pope she made sure that she was dressed in accordance with the customs of the Roman church.  This is hypocritical in my opinion.
The other aspect of the control is monetary. A rule about giving to the church regularly. The church is usually obscenely rich and has huge, elaborate buildings, often in places where the general populace is living in poverty.
Religion causes war! Men believe that their way is the only way and any other way is evil. How can anyone ho declares a belief in a god murder people in such terrible ways and such horrific numbers!