I am working on this. Trying to distill a 'magnum opus' to email ain't easy.
But I have one idea I would like to add. This is a point of clarification
of your concern about faith. It kind of goes along with the idea I was
trying to express about elitism. It seems that we all pretty much agree on
the idea that there is some objective reality. Perhaps we have different
ideas of what that is; and our continuum ranges from those who think it is
'patterns' (I place myself close to the edge on this one) to those who have
a more material view. I have read into this thread the idea that this
'stuff' is true, singular and non-contradictory.
Now we postulate that the business of individual lives is to come to an
understanding of this "TRUTH". Now, I am setting this up in my terms not
to trick but to try to understand or to communicate my misperception of
your issue with faith.
(Sorry, this was so clear in my mind when I was drifting off to sleep last
night...)
Is it that you feel there is a legitimate path to said TRUTH and an
illegitimate path? For that is what it feels like to me. Your list is
illustrative. Do you know why you chose those particular words?
Marie
Marie L. Foster
<http://www.geocities.com/~mfos/>