We easily see the role of religion in trying to alter human behavior, so that it is tempting to see all aspects as something imposed to control our basic nature, and thus something to be rejected. Religion also reflects real aspects of human nature, and I think it is useful to examine these and often to reclaim them as our own instead of a blanket rejection as being part of theism. One of these that interests me is monasticism. It comes up in remarkably similar forms in pretty much every major religion. People live outside of society for the most part, simply, but within a world of art and knowledge. In western civilization, monasteries were the time capsules that carried much that would otherwise have been lost in the Dark Ages. I think that just as some are born gay, some are born monastic, and perhaps we have evolved this way because there is a strong evolutionary argument for such time capsule groups serving humanity over much of our existence on earth. Anyone feel that they were born with monastic traits?