What's really wrong with picking and choosing? I hear that complaint a lot- 'oh this guy's just picking and choosing what he likes about his religion and ignoring the rest'. Fine, but what's so bad about that? I for one am a voracious picker and chooser. I can understand the problem if it's unprincipled. But principled picking and choosing seems ok to me. A religion may have 2 elements for example, x and y. I may find out that element x came about by a process very specific to the context that it was formed in, and that it has nothing to do with my situation. At the same time, element y came about by contextual processes that are more far-reaching in their applicability, such that it has relevance to my life now. As long as the two aren't tightly married (as is sometimes be the case with religious elements), I should be free to accept y and reject x.