*sigh*...I suppose a 5 paragraph treatise on circular reasoning would be silly at this point.


daylia...re:"so much confusion seems to exist about what is 'religious' and what is 'spiritual'! They are NOT synonymous imo!!! "

indeed, there IS confusion...and no, they are not synonomous. But Amos' post about the flaw in the language used to ask or discuss is quite relevant. Human beings have a remarkable ability to assume that because we give a name to a concept, we are automatically discussing something 'real'. The distinction between abstract ideas and 'things' becomes fuzzy, and many nits are picked over 'spirituality' by folks who can't decide if you need a 'spirit' to have 'spirituality'...and what one would look like if you found it....yet they have the word, and by golly, they are gonna keep debating.

Ok...fine....

You know, I am reminded of Descartes, who was a believing Catholic, but thought he could ALSO prove the existence of God by reason alone, and set out to pretend to doubt in order to go through the process......The church was not amused! It made no difference what his conclusions were, he was told plainly that 'doubting', even as a formality, was not an option. The "truth" was revealed, and "we don' need no steenkin' philosophy to support us", thankyewverymuch. The very idea of suggesting that people practice 'doubt' was considered a danger...and, it seems, rightly so.

Descartes got the message....but his books, and others, were already 'out'.....and several hundred years later, there are stubborn dolts like me who think the rules of logic, language and general thinking apply across the board. Different concepts do not get lesser scrutiny just because they are more prized or revered. 'Religion' and "God' and 'spirituality' get just as tight a review as 'ether' or 'aura' or 'feng shui' or 'ghost'.

*.....again, stuff deleted that was beginning to sound as preachy as the positions I am debating.

wow, it sure would be easier to 'talk', instead of composing. I used to take days to write this many lines in a Philosophy paper, and I worry how it sounds after 20 minutes!...but hey...the internet/WWW is about instant reparteé and communications, huh?