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Thanks, Saltmeister, for that word. I, perhaps, am too thin-skinned? I'm not offended, though . . . . Ah. This is the crux of the matte for me. I grew up being spoon-fed dogma and being told that to question it was anathema, apostasy, pure sin. Now I want to explore, think, ponder, consider...

Gut feelings, or intuition: a part of life, I agree. But the fact that I act on intuition from time to time doesn't mean that there should never be a reason for holding a belief? The world is not black and white, of course. There are times when a gut feeling is an appropriate tool for...

Perhaps, perhaps. The thing for me is, while I certainly come down on the side of rational thought, there is something of the mystic in me. A paradox, to be sure. I cannot put my finger on it, but there is something beyond my five senses, something I sense dimly through a sort of sixth sense...

Perhaps this is best illustrated in dialog. Bob: Water has been known to burst into flames. Rachel: Really? How do you mean? Have you seen this happen? Bob: No, I haven't. But it's true just the same. Rachel: How do you know? Bob: Well, it's not important to know the "how" of the matter. It...

I'm not sure that it's just a personal opinion, Thomas. Set aside the Christian context for a moment. Is is reasonable to believe that a woman who has never had sex could give birth? Would you believe it of your next door neighbor? I think it is the Christian tradition that makes it seem...

Chris, is this your way of saying that religion is propaganda?

Of course. But I'm not in personal relationship with them, and so the faith I have in them is not as individuals per se, but more like a faith in the rule of law. It is a most unfortunate fact about the world that this is, indeed, the way it works. It is not the way many of us would like it to...

I agree, cyberpi: Faith is to be preferred over factual information. But would you take someone on faith without knowing anything about them? I think that most would gradually build faith in another as they begin to experience each other, learn about each other -- in short, to delve into the...

That's a very good question with a somewhat complex answer, Ciel. I grew up as a evangelical fundamentalist, and find it hard to shake my ties with my past. Even though I "know better now," I still find it important to be able to answer this question. I'm not so much asking evangelicals...

Thank you, Bruce. Very poetic, but it doesn't, unfortunately, help me at all in my quest to resolve the need of evangelicals to insist that I accept some things without questioning. ~ ~ ~ I'm a tad frustrated, because I posted a rather long response to the first half dozen respondents to this...

Wow, thank you all for the warm welcome. I'm going to respond to all of you in this one post, so it may be a touch long -- we'll see. First of all, I think definitions are in order. As I first stated, I deliberately made my query open-ended and perhaps vague, in order to invite non-knee-jerk...

Ask a religionist why he holds a particular belief and the answer is often that it is a matter of faith, not reason. My question is: Why is this acceptable? In all other areas of life, reason is accepted. Why is faith exempt? I look forward to your thoughts. (I've specifically kept this...