>Even the most logical have faith in their own senses. Furthermore,
The logical will be open to the possibility that their senses
can deceive.
>there is no rule requiring that the person of greatest faith be the
>least rational; The two are not opposites. The opposite of rational
>is irrational. The opposite of faith is non-existence. [ducking! :-) ]
The opposite of (what I mean by) faith is skepticism. I know you
tacked a smiley on your definition of the opposite of faith, but
if there is any truth to it, that could explain (part of) our
ongoing disagreement on the subject.
This reminds me, the same issue of Skeptic (vol.5, no.2) that I have
been recommending for the meme article by Susan Blackmore also has
an excellent article by Bill Wisdom called "Skepticism and Credulity
(finding the balance between type I and type II errors)". A type I and II
error are rejecting a truth and embracing a falsehood respectively.
The author argues that there is no method for avoiding both kinds of
errors all the time, so a balance must be struck. Is this why you
are arguing for faith and against skepticism? Because you see some
of us swinging the pendulum too far in one direction?
-- David McFadzean david@lucifer.com Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/ Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/