Dialogue with Ellis
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Rev I cannot believe that everyone who acknowledges the possible existence of god (or the supernatural) KNOWS that this is true.
I know that what I call GOD--goodness, order and design--is true, for me. I like to think of the "supernatural" as that part of the natural which we have not, with the help of a humble science, discovered as yet.

BTW, compared to what my parents, and certainly my grandparents, experienced, I am living in a supernatural world.

You ask
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What happened to: Lord-- I believe, help thou my unbelief.
This question by Thomas is still there and asked by many.

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... I am a little annoyed at the way atheists are portrayed as denying the existence of a personal god (you now the one with a beard sitting on a cloud)
Don't atheist deny the existence of a personal god?
What I want to ask atheists is: Do you also deny the existence of persons as spiritual beings?--that is, persons who could possibly be capable of surviving physical death of the physical biody and go on experiencing an awesome kind of existence in other and GOD-like dimensions. Which is what I believe: We are evolving from physical, through mental to spiritual.

You mention
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... the nature of individual faith, without which communal belief cannot exist.
I readily admit that what I predict is based on what I believe, what I have faith it.

My understanding is that most atheists--perhaps not all--are nihilists. Without malice or prejudice, I caution--those especially to use their "faith" as an excuse to do evil: Nihilists, take care of what you believe in; you may get that in which you appear to believe.

BTW, if you are right you will never have the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so..." But think of the fun I will have with the moral, ethical and loving atheists who I feel will live to live another day. My definition of hell is life without hope.


G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org