Good grief. Such animosity. Amos, the caps I only intend as an honorific to my deity, er, uh, Deity! There's some historic tradition for that. Honest, I was only seeking to balance out assertions to the contrary as noted by the presence of those other threads. I found THOSE assertions to be provocative. I might have even found them offensive but the offense is not to me.

As noted above, reality is, philosophically and logically a difficult thing to prove even though we all, to some degree ( a little humor there), participate in it. We pretty much take our world as given, on faith. We believe it because in our experience, it works. My faith in Christ worked great changes for me. More over it is His claim in the book which portrays Him, that He will do the same for anyone who truly turns to Him. Not my claim. His claim. I just happen to believe it.

As for the direction of the 'Cat, well, we are all people and free people have the right or perhaps even the duty to differ on things. That's how you can tell if you are still free. In a society that has only one voice you may believe that you are entirely free, IF you happen to agree with that voice. Everything is hunky dory! But if you should happen to voice an idea that runs counter to the bias, What happens? Is that idea tolerated? Is the person shouted down? Exiled? Eliminated?   Brr. While I have disagreed, and at times, vociferously disagreed with some assertions I have always tolerated the same. I have sought points of common ground and have related to mindsets outside of my own experiences. I have a great appreciation for Zen and Buddhism in general. Hinduism, Jainism have a high intellectual capacity as some aspects offer much wisdom. I have studied many of the religions of the world as a means to understanding my own. I have been a student of philosophy, physics, life sciences, astronomy, I struggle with calculus but really appreciate its abilities to define the reality of the physical world. A there are many more directions I have taken in order to understand my life and my world. I have sought to understand, to appreciate the thing level.

And too, I have sought to understand the psyche, the conscious mind/brain connection. What is consciousness??? You know it exists. I presume you probably all have one (if "one" is the right word!) and yet I take that on faith also, as you can't weigh it or measure it in a physical way. And yet most all of us spend 99% of our waking hours dealing with matters and constructs of the mind and personalities. What is the soul? Some would say that it doesn't exist or that it is just a biochemical manifestation. Prove it or prove it not. It is entirely subjective. But what is the object? What is the subject? It questions existence itself which is a really cool thing to contemplate. To me it is amazing how we fill a physical niche in the living world and yet the world cannot contain the mind or the heart of Man ( uh, sorry about the cap and the gender thing there, Amos!).

I won't write a book here and that should be kept in mind by all posters to not get too serious about anything that appears here below the line. It is a bull session. Period. There is no need for anger or provocation to anger. My take is that anything goes but don't go overboard. As for keeping the integrity of above-the-line entries, I agree, reign those in and keep them on topic. A few asides and anecdotes hurt nothing but if that is all that the thread becomes, then move it or file it.

As a little hint, check out the informal fallacies of logic. To attack the person proves nothing.