Thanks Richard. I keep reading here though I do not post as much as I once did. It just seems to me so clear.
Faith is belief without proof. Religious people have it. Ahtiests have it. Sort of like integrity. Without it... DEAD.
Please... the only way to bring some semblance of honor to the discussion is to spend the time doing the critical analysis of the only thing we can really ever know. That is ourselves. Believe me... it is a life time project if it is done well.
Can we meet? Would anyone be upset if we kiss?
Are there still things in the universe that are unseen? Or have we come to a point in time when all is known and settled? No.
But... angels still dance on pins.
Marie
Richard Brodie wrote:
> Jake MemeLab wrote:
>
> > The
> >reasons driving religious thinking are many (belonging, security, comfort,
> > simplicity, and on and on).
>
> Same as the reasons driving scientific thinking, right?
>
> > The reason permitting it is always one, not using
> >critical thinking skills. Either having a general pattern of not using
> them,
> >or putting them on hold for one or a few emotional exceptions.
>
> Do you know how arrogant and naive this sounds? I guess you do:
>
> >After more than a decade of striving to understand religious folks, I can't
> >put it any more charitably than that - though I spent a fair amount of
> effort
> >in the past trying to be more "politically correct".
>
> And if they spend a decade trying to understand you, would you advise them
> to give up? Get it through your head: they've got something GOOD that you
> don't got. Maybe you should learn what it is!
>
> ...
>
> >Religion (at least as it is traditionally understood), is doomed for
> >extinction.
>
> You make the common mistake of the evangelistic atheist: irrationally
> assuming that the pursuit of Truth is a more important value than the
> pursuit of happiness.
>
> Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/
> Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
> http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
> Free newsletter! Visit Meme Central at
> http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm