Bill - "oh..BTW, Little Hawk....what happens when one has a "missing or misconstrued piece of data" ..or "incorrect underlying assumption" without logic to guide them?"

LOL! I thought you might say that. Bill...don't make the mistake of assuming that I am recommending NOT to use logic! Any sane person uses a certain amount of logic most of the time, and most people use a lot of logic...as they should...BUT (listen carefully)...

Despite their use OF logic, which as I say is very, very common, it is equally common for them to still be wrong in many of their conclusions! This can easily be observed in others and even in oneself, often as not.

Therefore, what I was drawing attention to with some amusement was the fact that people's gift of logical thinking still leads them astray very often...simply because they use of logic is limited to:

1. available information
2. their ability to hunt out that information
3. their likely inclination to ignore or discount information they don't like
4. their frequent tendency not to even notice information that IS relevant, specially if they wouldn't like it
5. their more frequent tendency to gloss over unpleasant information and focus strongly on information that is pleasant
6. their emotions and prior belief systems interfering in the whole process described above

It's hilarious, Bill. I have never yet seen an arguer or a debater or a believer in anything who didn't use logic, and plenty of it, but how much was his logic compromised by his emotions, his prejudices, his preconceived notions, his need to "win" once he has decided on a position from which to argue?

And that is why the whole thing amuses me, when people start trumpeting about their grand allegiance to LOGIC...as if only THEY and people who agree with them love logic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha! I laugh. We all love logic, and we all use it every chance we get to impress others with the rightness of our views, and we are all frequently wrong regardless.

There is no one out there "without logic to guide him", Bill, unless you are speaking of someone who is very severely mentally ill and incapable of thinking coherently at all. Hell, even dogs and cats can use a certain amount of logic. I've seen them do it.

Bill, I think you keep the same mistake, and that is assuming that the people you don't agree with about something are stupid. ;-) They're not. I would never assume you are stupid, and you are misleading yourself if you think that people who believe in various esoteric things are stupid either. Most of them are far from it, and they are just as good at using logic as anyone else is.