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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] us<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>>…<span style='color:black'>My strong sense of rationality eventually detected the cognitive dissonance, but for most it never happens and the ideology sticks for life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>Gadrsd</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Ja, and this can lead to enormous problems for those of us raised in religious fundamentalist homes who eventually do ask questions. Example, if we are taught the reason we are decent people is because God tells us to be that way, and we are told that God created life by speaking it into existence… then later we look carefully at nature and realize creationism is bogus… OK then, what about morality? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Do we now have some kind of logical basis for being decent people? In my mind we do, but many former fundamentalists trip over this part, then proceed to wreck their lives. I personally know plenty of examples, plenty. I wasn’t one of them, but it was a very difficult transition for me to accept that our actions in this short life have no eternal consequences. Our actions have no cosmic consequences. We are here for a short time, then gone forever, so in that sense, nothing we do matters in the big picture. I realized our actions do matter in the small picture, which where we live and when we live. So… my outward behavior never changed much, not in any visible way, as I transitioned from a fundamentalist believer to a flaming atheist. I talk a little differently, but only if people ask very specific questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>