Well, you've invested a lot of sincere consideration to it and I
respect that. I apologize for any words that might have seemed
offensive or at least incorrect. Much of the qualities you
ascribe to atheism I would equally ascribe to agnosticism or
skepticism. Yet even with skepticism, I am sometimes skeptical
of skepticism itself and allow myself, very slowly, gingerly and
carefully, to accept a few things without further skepticism,
although even there, the self-skepticism always remains
somewhere deep down. It might just boil down to having similar
but slightly different simple truths. My simple truth is, "Keep
my bullshit detector armed and ready at all times and aim most
of its power at myself and a little bit out there as well". The
nature of bullshit? Shows up in a lot of places. I hear it in
myself. I hear it in others. I look for it. I look for the
quality or lack of quality of metaphors used. Another place I
look for is words like, "is". "is" is a very strong word. I'm
careful when I use it, or try to be. When I spot an "is", a
"watch closely here" flag pops up. Truth, hyperbole, ideals and
practicalities all mix together freely and I try to sort them
our carefully, both in my own thinking and in others as well.
Yet, I don't know if my way is better. Maybe your way is. Maybe
there's a monk on Mt Athos that's got the right methodology. I
just go with a large set of working assumptions, always subject
to change.
