TT, thanks for your effort. It is not an easy read, I always struggle to understand what you mean. Were you raised as a Christian, Jew, Hindu, or what?

My thanks to SAGGO--Kate&Amaranth--for the way it has set up the ignore button. smile It allows me to take my time; to set aside posts; and put them on the back-burner, so to speak, rather than just ignore--a term I do not like to use.

If I were a theist, I would also thank God. Interestingly, religious Jews--and note that not all Jews are religious. Many are secular--write god as G-d. Pious Jews, like unitheists, so abhor idolatry--ie.,worshipping god as a thing--that they strive to even to avoid making a mental image of "him".

As a unitheist, my thanks goes to SAGGO and to GOD--god in the general and universal sense of the concept. When I think of god in individuals, like you and me, I write G0D--individuals who willingly choose to use their willpower and choose to be at one with GOD, or G.O.D.
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SHOULD WE DEBATE? OR HAVE A DIALOGUE?
Informally, a debate is simply a discussion for and against any issue. Usually, reasonable people can have a debate to settle issues and not fight about who wins.

However, sad to say, debating among unreasonable people can often let feelings and passions coming to the fore and become irrational. This is evident when there is violent shouting, even to threat of assault, to illegal assault, including, assault and battery, manslaughter and/or even murder.

A FORMAL DEBATE
The archaic meaning does refer to fighting, strife and contention.

However. in modern times it has come to mean a contest between two sides to see which one has the more skill in speaking and reasoning and there-by influencing the vote on an issue.

My opinion? I respect a well-regulated debate--one, for example, in which there is agreement to follow:
http://www.robertsrules.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert's_Rules_of_Order

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue
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noun
1. conversation between two or more persons.
2. the conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc.
3.an exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue, especially a political or religious issue, with a view to reaching an amicable agreement or settlement.
4. a literary work in the form of a conversation: a dialogue of Plato.
verb (used without object)
5. to carry on a dialogue; converse.
6. to discuss areas of disagreement frankly in order to resolve them.
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As theological and social device
Martin Buber assigns dialogue a pivotal position in his theology.
His most influential work is titled I and Thou. Buber cherishes and promotes throughout his work dialogue, not as some purposive attempt to reach conclusions or express mere points of view, but as the very prerequisite of authentic relationship between human beings, and between us and God (unitheists like to speak of G0D). His concern with the profound nature of true dialogue has resulted in what is known as the philosophy of dialogue.
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Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways:

First there is the "I" towards an "It", towards an object that is separate in itself, which we either use or experience; and that of the "I" towards "Thou", in which we move into existence in a relationship without bounds.

One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships. All of our relationships, Buber contends, bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou.

Buber explains that humans are defined by two word pairs: "I-It" and "I-Thou".

For "I-It," the "It" refers to the world of experience and sensation. I-It describes entities as discrete objects drawn from a defined set (e.g., he, she or any other objective entity defined by what makes it measurably different from other living entities).

It can be said that "I" have as many distinct and different relationships with each "It" as there are "It"s in my life. Fundamentally, "It" refers to the world as we experience it.
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What does it mean when a person experiences the world? Man goes around the world hauling out knowledge from the world. These experiences present man with only words of It, He, She and It with contrast to I-Thou. What this means is that the experiences are all physical and do involve a great deal of spirituality. The twofold nature of the world means that our experience of the world has two aspects: the aspect of experience, which is perceived by I-Its, and the aspect of relation, which is perceived by I-Thou.
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For those who ask what is,
SPIRITUALITY? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality
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THE FOLLOWING, GOING ON IN THIS THREAD IS, IMHO, AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF DIALOGUE, (DIALOG, American) BETWEEN SPIRITUAL BEINGS:
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Kevat Shah, Grenada, started this DIALOG-LIKE thread, Tue Mar. 11, 2008 he wrote 37 posts. The thread ended --------Sun., Apr. 13, 2008
Profile of Kevat Shah (atheist muslim?)
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showprofile&User=2050
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First post of K. Shah (King, in English)
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=25423&page=1
==========I joined this thread: Mon Mar 24 2008

I Registered at SAGGO: Wed Jan 17 2007
Posts: 1741 Loc: markham (Thornhill), Ontario, ...

Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 Re: To all Atheists: I asked:

K.Shah, or for that matter any sceptic: Tell us what you have in mind when you write "God". This will help provide a basis for helpful dialogue.

To all Atheists: Amaranth Rose II Registered: Fri Dec 15 2006
Posts: 604 Loc: Southeast Nebraska, USA
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Amaranth asked K.Shah: "What if you had an organization, like a religion, which said nothing about God or what his name was, but simply how men should live, what should be important in our lives, what is right and what is wrong."

The basic tenets of Buddhism are that one should follow a moral life but it says nothing about god. Is that what you are trying to describe?
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Amaranth et al: Unitheism is such an organization. There is a group on FaceBook--All are invited to join the dialogue. I am a member of this group because it goal is to help each of us to be the moral, ethical and kind and humane beings beings most us already really are. This is basic to all the tenets of unitheism to which I would subscribe.
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G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org