A.J. You are so much more succinct that I.
I too will be overseas for 2 months+ but I would like to thank Peter for this article and all his articles that provoke such interesting responses.

Keep up the good work Peter.....we love ya!

AJ

Two observations:

Even if science might one day explain everything... thats not much use to me today.

Scientists are already resorting to metaphor and paradox to describe things that they cant really understand. Religions have been doing that for a very long time. Perhaps these also turn out to be powerful intellectual tools even if the 'knowledge' they 'reference' is imprecise, uncertain and open to debate.

You bible thumpers take a lot of convincing that the fairy tales that you so earnestly believe in have all been dreamed up by men and are not the Word of God. Go back and check out the talk at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_9w8JougLQ
if you are game to listen to reason.

David

Also read and hopefully digest
http://ffrf.org/legacy/books/lfif/?t=lostfaith.

David

VK3AUU

<<You bible thumpers take a lot of convincing that the fairy tales that you so earnestly believe in have all been dreamed up by men and are not the Word of God.>>

The Word is not words. Fairy tales and the dreams of men –- and women and children! – can lead us to profound understanding of reality. Reality is not only the factual: the unconscious is utterly real and it drives us. Symbols, metaphor, imagination, dreams – all these can give us some insight into our unconscious life.

That is where the Word is and always has been. To the extent that imagination and dreams helped to create the Bible and other scriptures – and I think they did – they are a pathway to hearing the Word. But of course the Bible has historical and other factual material as well.

<<Go back and check out the talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_9w8JougLQ
if you are game to listen to reason.>>

OK, done it. Interesting and brought up a few angles worth further thought. On the whole though, Dennett presented nothing very new to me -- and certainly nothing to make me question the validity of my experience of what I usually call “God”. I'll look at your other link when I have time.

Cheers

Crasby,

I agree with everything you say here especially:-
"the unconscious is utterly real and it drives us. Symbols, metaphor, imagination, dreams – all these can give us some insight into our unconscious life."
The problem is that many who have these "dreams" insist on inflicting them on others who have different "dreams" or no "dreams". Religious belief as a path to reality is fine but it does not guarantee a higher moral or ethical plane. It also should not entitle the dreamer to special treatment in a society. This of course is the basis of secularism, where people are free to "dream" or not to dream without
being disadvantaged or favoured, which is the case at present.