In article , Charlie wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:21:11 -0400, "Dan L."
wrote:


Also, I base my life on reasoning. Most reasoning fails at the
presupposition level and most presuppositions are based on belief in
which all the facts are not there. If my presuppositions are wrong I
will change them. The existence of God was the biggest change.

Excellent Questions Billy !!!!!
You ask the questions that most people would not even dream of !!!!

Enjoy Life ... Dan

Interesting passage by Einstein follows, that seems to apply somehow.
I not be schmart enough to fully grasp and reason out most things, let
alone "debate" or "justify" my positions...I depend upon others to
speak of that which I understand, yet cannot articulate or communicate
on my own...sometimes you just go with your gut and honor the
mysterious.

--
Charlie

Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here
involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and
the wherefore. In our daily lives we only feel that man is here for the sake
of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is
connected with our own. I am often worried at the thought that my life is
based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings and I am
aware of my great indebtedness to them. I do not believe in freedom of the
will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will
what he wills' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and
reconcile me with the actions of others even if they are rather painful to
me. This awareness of the lack of freedom of will preserves me from taking
too seriously myself and my fellow men as acting and deciding individuals
and from losing my temper.

I never coveted affluence and luxury and even despise them a good deal. My
passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people,
as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as
absolutely necessary. I always have a high regard for the individual and
have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship. All these motives
made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any
nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on
position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did
any exaggerated personality cult.

I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the
weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and
economic protection of the individual appeared to me always as the important
communal aims of the state. Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my
consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive
for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated. The
most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the
mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all
serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems
to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that
can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose
beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection,
this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to
wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere
image of the lofty structure of all that there is."

-- Albert Einstein

I have several books by and about Einstein, technical and non. A very
interesting person. Most people are very religious then and today. When
one is born and completely surrounded by religious people one will often
accept the norm, Einstein included.

Times were different in my time. Evolution was taught in my science
classes in high school, religion was not. I was raised by a strong
fundamentalist family. I did not become an Atheist until 28 years old
(52 now). The two worlds of religion and science was crashing in my
mind. I could not merge or resolve the two worlds. One had to give. I
read the three different bibles, King James, NIV and the Standard, back
to back along with other references. It took four years of reading. One
reference book finished it for me - "Bible Difficulties by Archer". When
I finished his book - I was an Atheist. It was like removing the
heaviest weights off my shoulders and freed my mind.

If Einstein was born today, I have no doubt he would also be an atheist.

Enjoy Life ... Dan

--
Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically.