Terry: "Rede, it's not only in the rich west that people "find life without God to be an intolerable concept"."

"Furthermore, very many people in the rich west also...". Note the word "also". Seems you missed the point of the previous paragraph:

"From the fact that life for you and me is "it's own reason for living" it doesn't follow that it is so for everyone, as you'll no doubt have noticed. It's very easy, surrounded by all the best material comforts and amenities that 21st century science and technology have to offer, to forget that there are more than a few others in the world whose view of certain harsh realities is less obscured."

Terry: "In fact it's interesting to see you are so sympathetic to fundamentalist Islam!"

Please, Terry! If I thought I didn't know you better...but you know better than that. You also missed the point of my last paragraph:

"I should point out that I'm referring to the unadorned 'Fred' concept here, not a system of beliefs involving blatant contradiction to established, provable fact."

Get you mind off of the fundamentalist track for a moment, Terry. The contempt to which I refer, which should be clear enough from that post and from my previous posts, is of many atheists toward the very principle of theism in even its most "unadorned" form (which, note, I did specify).

Terry: "Also as far as I'm aware Islam no more involves "blatant contradiction to established, provable fact" than does Christianity."

As far as I'm aware, you're right, but what point are you making? Nowhere did I mention religion, but it should be clear that I share your view of it. It's in religion, not in Fredism, that we find that "blatant contradiction to established, provable fact", as you observe:

(Terry) "My gripe with the influence of religions is that I believe we cannot make rational decisions concerning our future until we have a rational view of our past. Religion often serves to hamper that rational view."

This is very true. It has everything to do with religion, and nothing to do with Fredism. The current passionate objections to 'belief in God' have little or nothing to do with Fredism. They are almost entirely objections to religion, and triggered by Islamic terrorism and Christian fundamentalism.


"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler