In reviewing the cant cast upon folks of belief (The New Atheism) I fully believe that these gents have lost rational perspective.I have read both Harris and Dawkins. The work on memes is especially cool. The axing of Christian stupidity is grand. Yeah! That far.It is of no significance that I disagree as to what is true, according to their impassioned cries to reason. How winning! They feel divinely inspired I guess. Our problem (being collaborative here) is I have had experiences which defy their framework. These tweaked my forever agnostic nose at an early age.The Philadelphia Bulletin had two magazines in the Sunday edition, one of which was, if I remember, The American Weekly. It had an article on testing your ESP sometime around 1957. It was a set of ten cards, five duplicates. The testing was to sit back to back with a companion and then one would lead and the other would lay their cards. I chose my younger sisters. One sat to the side to guard against cheating. (Some early scientific methodology!) In 100 tries, each swapping the lead role, my elder sister and I matched 96 times, with my youngest 92. You're welcome to do the math. I did not know that this was incredible until I was considerably older. It modified me from thinking it was all a crock.
Experiental reality is what impacts us. The author, Mr. Wolf agrees. If everything is determinative, why are there statistics? It's because the overarcing reality is malleable. The question is by exterior or interior to the universe force(s).Is it a balloon being mushed or somethng tinkering with the quantum flux? I am unoffended by anyone calling it God, god or the wood sprites. If they have it in their mind that they can know the will of an infinitely powerful being however, they must be nuts.The question has evolved beyond that. It's whether we are of the essence (Gregory Benford) or we are meat robots. Since the one exalts us and the other diminshes us, line me up with the Mystery as Unitarians Universalists hold faith to. I might be able to gain a better grasp of Truth by considering my anecdotal existence. All we consist of are anecdotes. So lets build a trove by meandering amongst these contests hoping for more nuggets to weigh. It's not an important activity but it keeps the blackness at bay.
Dennis Bohner
