Caught me trying to change the subject again, eh Bill? :-)

Yeah, I give the word "God" my own definition. And so does everybody else. People's usual error is that they assume someone else saying "God" means the same thing they mean when they say "God".

So, a "fundamentalist atheist" (my term for a certain mindset which is stridently opposed to religion or spirituality) who says "God" may mean by it:

God - that totally fictional and mythical entity imagined by some poor, deluded people to have created the Universe.

or

God - that fictional being made up by the churches in order to dominate and fleece the public

or

God - a fictional old guy with a long beard who sits in a fictional place called heaven and judges people's souls and casts people into a fictional hell

or

whatever...

Then the fundamentalist atheist says to me, "I don't believe in that God."

Well...duh! I don't either. But I do believe in God. The atheist's mistake is in assuming that "God" must necessarilly fall within the idiotic parameters that the atheist imagines other people must have assigned to the concept in the first place. He figures if they don't see it his way they must be very stupid. He is often wrong about that.

I'm not talking about you here, Bill. You're a tolerant and intelligent man, and not what I would call a fundamentalist atheist at all. I enjoy reading your comments.

- LH