Wesley S ~ Your post of 3.36 missed my point by so huge a distance that I hardly know where to begin to reply.

Of course I think one should be civil. I would regard it as very rude to insult anyone's wife or children, and would never dream of doing so.

BUT I regard the questioning of metaphysical concepts which I find absurd to be a different order of communication altogether; & I think it is cheating for a religious person, when his faith is treated with less than unquestioning respect, because 'religions must be regarded as sacrosanct, & it is unseemly to question them', to come on as if one had done something equivalent to being less than civil to his family. You made my point in asserting that you think it would be 'not polite' for anyone to question the truth of your beliefs. I consider the appeal to the concept of 'politeness' a feeble evasion, a pusillanimous cop-out, in this context: but one which the religious are only too prone to resort to. THAT was my point.

Can you really not see this distinction?

~Michael~