To: Brumar89 who wrote (11519 ) 12/23/2010 4:23:25 PM From: Solon Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 69300 No. I did not. I very seldom read any of your long cut and pastes for two reasons: Firstly, I figure you generally don't read them, so why should I? and secondly, if it has a true meaning for you--then it is likely puerile, irrational, or both. In this instance, I did my ten second scroll and saw what appeared to be a story that would be a waste of valuable time for me. I did not see the part that you obviously inserted about scoffing at the unknown. But you sounded sincere when you said something just now about scoffing at some folks so I went back and caught the line about scoffing at the unknown. I then proceeded to read the entire story. After that I discovered that it was written by one Reid Forgrave and carried the qualifier:"Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. " Now, having pointed that out, let me speak to an intentional (or perhaps unintentional) perception you seem to have about my claim not to "scoff at the unknown". You appear to be under the misapprehension that this is the equivalent of saying that I do not scoff at anything or that I take a neutral opinion in all matters of superstition?. That seems a rather odd way of interpreting what I said. And it is incorrect. Perhaps you were distracted at the time and had other matters on your mind. Be that as it may, let me hasten to correct you by stating I have scoffed at the transparent mythology in the bible being presented as factual history since a very early age. Now, I have no way of knowing if that story was presented as truth or fiction, but if this fellow really did feel so nervous about flying that he had bad dreams and made a "just in case" recording wondering whether he was paranoid or not, then it is not surprising that he would couch his superstitious fears in the supernatural dogma that apparently suffused and permeated his existence (to the point where he even tried to impose his values on his coworkers). His control issues seem to indicate a fellow dealing with obsessive compulsive issues which would surely dovetail nicely with his ability to accept outlandishly transparent superstitions as factual. So, I certainly have a complete disbelief in his having had a true message from Yahwee. That would be impossible. Yahwee is imaginary. Could he have imagined he was getting a possible message (unless he was paranoid)? Certainly. Even you should be able to figure out (by looking at the thousands of similar "stories" that exist in every religion and culture where only the name of the "god" is changed), that there are either thousands of legitimate gods (none of them all-powerful)--or every single one of those stories were false beliefs except for the ones who thought it was one of the myriad Christian gods poking at their neural pathways, or the ones who thought it was Allah, or the ones who thought it was Buddha, or the ones who thought it was Edgar Cayce--or Adolph Hitler, or... I don't scoff at the unknown. I scoff at the known. I scoff at people who know they can fall 1 mile without a parachute and live. I scoff at someone who knows he can eat a deadly poison and live. I scoff at someone who knows they can think quite clearly with their head cut off. And I scoff at the bible which is a foolish and puerile mythology of no value to humanity. And finally, having "scoffed" at this fellows belief that the bible was true and that Yahwee exists and watches over his life--I don't scoff at his fragile humanity or (if the story was true) his unfortunate death. And even when one can scoff it is not always necessary or condign.