...I was never that "taken" with Hamlet -- because I didn't have the teen angst and parent issues that most have experienced. At 14 I was working and I haven't stopped since. At 17 I was making more per week than my father who was a Fundie preacher. So if anyone suffered from angst, it was more likely my father. ;-)
And I didn't think that your use of the "heaven and earth" line was presumptuous, but rather that it was more reflective of the opposite of what you intended. Those words were uttered as I recall, to an astounded Horatio who couldn't (or simply didn't want to) grasp the reality of the situation. The King in his ghostly apparitional state, informs is son that his own brother was his murderer, the seducer of his wife and a usurper to the throne of Denmark. All things that are commonplace in Hamlet's world, which is what he is referring to here. And in our own.
So the idea that "there are more thing in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in Horatio's philosophy," is a reference directed toward someone who could not, or refused to accept the machinations of the real world. The deceit, the envy, and the hatred. It is a reference to someone whom Hamlet sees ignoring the facts and realities of life, choosing rather to live in a perfect bliss of their own construction. Which to me, describes the view of religionists, perfectly.
It is the Church's history that is the most telling of all I think. I can think of no endeavor, no initiative, in fact no human activity which came about as a result of political necessity, and which was founded and practiced utter depravity, ruthlessness, and deception -- and which then somehow resulted in anyone's betterment. This was the ground upon which The Church was cultivated. I think that today, most believers fail to make that connection. And if and when they do, it is usually excused away, as having been "of another time." But if this is so, then what does that say of its relevancy to us today? It is an exercise in the worst of Cognitive Dissonance. Even this past year Pope Ratzie went to South America proclaiming that the "natives had been silently longing" to be saved and converted (or killed by the Conquistadors), but who in reality were the victims of "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requerimiento">The Requirement" (the Papal Bull of 1493 by Pope Alexander VI) An excerpt from that BULL:
But, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the notary here present to give us his testimony in writing, and we ask the rest who are present that they should be witnesses of this Requisition."
And thus, The Church sanctioned once again, the wholesale subjugation, enslavement and/or slaughter of an entire continent of people. Were it not for secular laws curbing their excesses, I have no doubt that they'd still be doing this today. So the Church was and always will be a state religion, separation be damned. And by starting out with such a beginning as they had, it set about destroying all its competition of alternate religious perspectives. No doubt, had the Roman Empire been able to withstand the gathering hoards, it might possibly still be the only state religion. As it is, The Church's foundation was built upon the blood of the initial believers who were not only too Pagan, but had the audacity to refuse to tow the new company-line. That blood is still on their hands and will never go away. So The Church has ZERO CREDIBILITY as far as I can see. They excommunicated and literally destroyed the lives of any and all deniers, and in the process totally circumvented and undermined the pious pronouncements of their leader -- the promoter of love and kindness towards one's neighbors.
The Church was then, as it is now, a political mechanism which serves both the user and the ussee(s) own purposes and has little to almost nothing to do with benefitting its followers. But then all institutions which have been devised by humans eventually end up serving itself rather than their creators. Our current government is a perfect example of this. And it is not a coincidence that The Church is still lurking in the background -- even now....