disillusioned

A deep dive? Not exactly. I have spent several years working directly with Syrian and Somali refugees. I've seen how their faith works, and how it affects their lives. I've also read a few books by Muslims who've converted to Christianity (most recently, "No God But One", by Nabeel Qureshi). Everything I've seen indicates that Islam is absolutely ridiculous, abhorrent, and generally patently silly. Just what one would expect from a poorly plagiarized version of Christianity/Judaism.

This guy is not worth the time I spent typing this.

Honestly, this is too much. Crazy people gonna crazy, I guess.

How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real?

The thing is, I'm still not sure about quantum entanglement. And, thanks to PJ, I'm not even sure what causes my uncertainty. So how can I be expected to take this seriously? I'm sure that at some point in the ensuing discussion the quantum field dynamics will supercede my limited understanding. Then the divergence of the Higgs' field will show that Newton should have just eaten the Gosh Darned apple, thereby once more committing the fabled original sin, and starting the entanglement process anew. Enter Maxwell, to show that Christ crucified, when properly understood, diverges from

What good is an irrational and incoherent argument to a rational being?

One thing is very clear: PJ doesn't know what he's talking about.

Late to the thread. Doesn't seem like I've missed anything important...

Always good to see you posting Jess. Love ya.

Good stuff LF. It's been a long ride. I'm certainly glad to have you for a friend, even if we've never actually met. Maybe one day.

@Brothermario

Very briefly, regarding the free will article linked to above: a very interesting read, but I don't find that there's anything in it to challenge my position. Consciousness is one of the things that the brain does. Because the brain does consciousness, we are capable of choice. This doesn't mean that we don't sometimes act instinctually/automatically. Another thing that the brain does is to cause us to react reflexively. But, when sufficent time is available, we can overcome our insticts and behave in the ways that we choose. Or, at least, so it seems to me.

Blasphemy is not possible, because God doesn't exist. Just try to be nice to people and you'll be as good, and as likely to receive salvation, as anyone else is.

Westmalle. No question.

Hello Krowb! Your contributions here are very welcome. This thread certainly has trailed off recently. This is not because the topic has been exhausted, or because I've lost interest. I've just been busy. I'm very happy to see you reviving the discussion. Yes, and I think this leads to an even deeper point: on my view, it isn't just that we don't always have the words to properly describe ontological reality, we don't even necessarily have the concepts to properly think about it. I believe that consciousness is the thing (or, at least, one of the t