Jay said:
Your subsequent remarks indicate you have no idea what I meant and that you didn't understand what I wrote.
I did not say your faith prevents you from examining the evidence against you. You're examining some of it by participating in these forums. I said it prevents you from examining it critically (note that qualifying adverb), which is to say, it prevents you from understanding it. It's not consistent with things you've already decided
a priori are true, so you reject it.
I said there are simpler explanations than the ones you've chosen. That's what I meant I'd explain in more detail, if you'd care to describe some of the events that have led you to this faith. For instance, you could claim that you've had feelings you understand as the Spirit moving within you, and I'd provide the simpler explanation. For that particular one, there are many.
I think he is wrong that the evidence does not lend itself to the idea that there might be more going on here than meets the eye.
That's not what I said either. Of course there's more going on here than meets the eye, if modern science makes anything plain at all, it's that. I simply don't think it's what you think it is, and my standards of evidence are a little more demanding than yours.
...to the point he wishes to cure me of my (what he must think is a mental disorder) faith...
Being misguided, which is the word I used, isn't a mental disorder. It's just being wrong. I also said "
possibly deluded." Note the qualification. Delusion isn't necessarily a mental disorder either. If you're hearing voices or hallucinating angels in your kitchen I'd have to say you're delusional, but you've given no indication of that.
If you're going to persist in responding with snide parenthetical remarks and what appear to be deliberate misinterpretations based on ignoring key words, it's going to be difficult to talk about this.
For whatever it's worth, I have no real opinion of you at all yet, I don't know enough about you to legitimize making a judgement. I do, however, strongly disagree with some of the opinions you've expressed, and I've always been deeply curious about how people come to form such opinions. I begin to suspect the human brain is somehow hard-wired for religious belief, and I think that's a subject worth exploring. If you want to continue to play ball on that basis, I'm willing.
