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To: Lane3 who wrote (4686)	3/25/2002 1:42:38 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

...have reservations about people insisting that that folklore is "sacred." I think you mentioned before that the word "sacred" itself offends you. Is there anything that you would consider venerable enough to achieve the status of sacred? What if a person gave you his word to protect a confidence with his life if need be? Would that qualify as a sacred trust?

To: Lane3 who wrote (4686)	3/25/2002 3:18:50 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 21057

Good points Karen, though I think you are underestimating the import of allowing for the possibility of a creator. Once that it is conceded, then logic and rationality comes into play as we interpret what is evident in what we can perceive and understand about our existence. For example, there is the steady progress upward in complexity and attributes of living things, including ourselves. Evolution can be seen, with logic, as following not a random, meandering path, but rather as following some immutable course toward continual betterment. Or, in the case of the "laws" of our existence, such as the conservation of matter and energy, one can logically deduce an immortality of the elements of our existence that seems more than a matter of chance. If matter and energy cannot (by law) be created or destroyed, but only transformed, one could rationally infer that the process we know as "death" does not necessarily, or even logically, mean the end of our existence. Such points are more than arguable, but I am saying that a very rational and logical person could interpret them as evidence of a designed and purposeful existence ... a belief founded on much more solid ground than "wishful thinking." If a person gets this far, then it is reasonable for them to search through the belief systems that constitute "religion," on the possibility that one or more of them are based on some revelations from a creator. While these revelations would not be provable, they would be consistent with belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful deity. It would be small leap from that to subscribing to a particular religion, being of a particular "faith," and considering some aspects of the religion to be sacred truths. My main point is that this journey does not have to be irrational, nor illogical, and certainly not squirrelly. JC