<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=msd001@gmail.com href="mailto:msd001@gmail.com">Mike
Dougherty</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, September 29, 2006 11:26 PM</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>> I still don't understand the almost rabid counter-religion sentiment
here.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What's not to understand? Do you think it's
OK to believe in lies?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Speaking for myself, I have said it before and I'll
say it again - I'm ecumenical about religions - I detest them
all. That's not rabidity, that's ... equanimity!
:)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Religion is ... I think it may have been Robert
Ingersoll who defined it as: "... an aristocracy of the
air." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>> Miffed? No. mainly frustrated by my own inability to
phrase the question neutrally enough that anyone understands what I am
saying. I know the burden of clarity here is on me (the sender) rather
than the reader(s) </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Maybe you would encounter the same problem trying
to make people understand what's just "a little bit pregnant." Maybe
there's just no neutrality there. One is either a superstitious sort
... or a rational skeptical sort? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>> Me, Religious? Definitely no. I assume a high degree of
probability to the utility and fitness of my own world-assessment
faculties. I would imagine this to be commonly true of any rational
person. Of course, believing that probability to be absolutely 1 might
lead to the kind of fanaticism that "religionists" claim in the name of god.
<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You know, you can dress up the ole' Emperor in all
sorts of oblique and opaque and grandiloquent invisible vestments ... but he
still ain't got no clothes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Olga</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>