---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote :
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : AWhat I don't understand is Bawwy's lack of tolerance for those who chose to speak and think and write and contemplate about the existence of God. He simply dismisses it all as if he has it all figured out and would never consider any other possibility for how this existence is structured. In other words, he has closed himself off as if he was deaf, dumb and blind. Ann, there doesn't seem to be anyone here who feels the need to proclaim more loudly, "I Am An Atheist" than Barry. But in practice and belief, he seems more a classic theist. And perhaps this causes him some degree of cognitive dissonance. I say this because he seems to believe in an underlying intelligence. (classic theism) He believes in rebirth, and surfing along on the Bardo. (standard Buddhist beliefs). He doesn't want to take a stab at explaining how rebirth and the bardo might play out, preferring to use a blanket explanation that it plays out "automatically", not realizing that automatically does not preclude a precise intelligence at work. But I think the perceived "renegade" status he gets by stating he is an atheist is too hard for him to pass up. Even if he would be denied card carrying status. The other atheist here, at least seem more comfortable in that belief, (or non belief, I guess), and don't feel the need to repeatedly make that declaration. God Forbid, don't ask him to explain anything. That said, I do like him. You see, I do believe there is something akin to God but this is what I have come to as a result of living for 57 years and having experienced what I have experienced. I will take experience over argument or debate (although these are both good things) but it does not seem that I can come to any other conclusion based on brilliant yet unprovable theories espoused through dialogue. What I know is that life is big, mysterious and extraordinarily beautiful and horrific at the same time. However, I think underneath it all lies an infinitely embracing love and glorious perfection that virtually no one is privy to while we still live and breath here on Earth. So, debate away, compare ideas of great and not so great thinkers but I'll be out in the field stirring up dandelion fluff or inhaling the dander from some horse I'm grooming. Any of these things can bring us all to the same conclusions - none of which will be provable and yet the process of trying to discover and find out about God or no God is maybe more important than the answer.
