Religion does have a tendency to cling to power. That is the nature of the beast. It lends spiritual credibility to barbaric acts, is given protection and sustenance in return.

Actions can be evil: the inversion of truth, power inflicted on the powerless, violence on the full spectrum of psychological to physical, subtle to unsubtle: all these acts, in the right context, can be defined as evil.

Power is the ultimate inauthenticity. It obscures the truth of our common human experience: that we are all equally without essence, that we are all therefore equal.

The temples of empires come tumbling down, the names of the mighty forgotten. Here is a parable: power never lasts.

Power does not simply stop at the locking of a door, even a cell door.

But until we all realise that power – be it that of gods, of kings or of masters – only exists in our minds, dear Venerable, do not tell me to dispense with the concept of freedom.

One way or another, we spend our whole lives being conditioned into accepting some line or order, some position of domination or subjection. It’s hard to unlearn such hierarchy, to undo such control. It’s implicit.

Olympus is still a patriarchy. Zeus heads his royal household as jealously as Jehovah rules his harem of dull, harp-playing angels. Both are templates for order on earth, don’t you think?