It would be wrong to equate atheism with Green or left wing philosophy. Marx may well have been an atheist and so may have been most of his followers. I can assure you that I am both an atheist and a confirmed liberal voter. Why I have the view that there is much to be admired in our present Prime Minister and in our current Government.
The philosophical question that I pose is what is the nature of knowledge? How do we know anything for certain? I would suggest that certain knowledge is not available to anyone. Yet we can have strong views on this or that accepting, always one can be proved wrong.
• We obtain information from our senses. Yet we also know that sensory information can be distorted. Optical illusions which work by tricking the brain are much fun. It is for these reasons that statisticians insist upon controls, randomisation and so on.

• We obtain information from our teachers and books, yet we know that falsehoods are passed down from one text to another. With experience we evolve tricks to verify the veracity of what is read, or what our teachers speak in lectures. Yet even after 80 or so years I can still get it wrong.

• Some claim knowledge from faith or revelation. This I dismiss as being too subjective. Physiologically, I accept that by dint of such procedures as prayer, fasting, repetitive chanting, and use pf pharmacological agents and so on one can alter brain chemistry so that you can believe anything.

So I don’t believe in a God. Ok I cannot prove that God does not exist. In the same way no theist can provide empirical evidence for the existence of deity. However, I do assert that that the existence of a God has such low probability as to be of no practical importance in my life.

indy/quote..<<..Miracles a Lourdes..?>>
69 apparently
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Miracles+a+Lourdes&ie

<<..That's a beat up..by the Church..to entrapp the gullible.>>

PLEASE/STATE WHICH ONES

<<>How many sufferers do/not get healed =..at Lourdes..& why not?>>

JEsus as you may know/sayetH;THY FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL
jesus ALSO;SAID..why cleans.a demON/FROM MAN;IF THEY ONLY RETURN/WITH 7 MORE DEmons..

iNDY/WHAT YOU mISS..IS THAT OUR MINDSET..allows the sickness[mucH SICKNESS WAS MISSDIOGNOSED[like any skin blemmish was caLLED LEPROCY]..REGArdless..if you dont meet the conditions needed to want to bE HEALED[YOU WONT\]

INDY/MANY THINGS GOVT ALLOWS DONE/MAKES US SICK
WE ARE HERE ON EARTH/BECAUSE We have no passions/that earn us heaven/\HELL

<<Are they all so bad that God doesn't think they deserve>>

no..rest assured/that thou\tHE WORLD HATE;YOU
GOD ALONE LOVES UNLIMITED;he was there'KNOWS the egsact reasoning/lets face it/gods ONLY ERROR;IS HE DIDNt make us pefect[but even this is a gift];TO ERR IS HUMAN

<<> being relieved of their sufferings>>

unconciousness;iS THE BLESSING/SLEEP is where goD REPAIRS OUR EARTHLY HURTS

<<>.?Have there ever been pregnant women with deformed foetuses>>

PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
BUT REGARDING THE DEFECT'S..they tried to cheat fact/thus got worse[karma;not gOD][NEVER THE Less..karma/reveals the higher learning[many;indeed all of us are needed;to reveal gods greaer glorY[WE SEE THE PERFECTIONS..by our verry fragility.[some great spIRITS OWE THEIR GREATNESS;TO THeir physical dAMAGE;

SOME SPIRITS OVERCOme;others seem ovecome;that we may earn good karma;in helping them[easing their burdens/fears;pains.

<<..There may well be unexplained incidences..>>
even sUZIEADMITS..WEIRD THINGS..but prefers to sepperate/care\from the detail.

<<..but to call them miracles is simply a step too far.>>

we miss THE MIRACLE/OF OUR OWN REALITY'
the bigger miracles we accept as mundane[the 'AUTOMATIC RESPONSE/SO MUCH VERGES ON MiRACULOUS..[once we realise we cant EVEN SUSTAIN OUR OWN BREATH;CONCIOUSLY.

http://www.spiritwritings.com/GatewayOfUnderstanding.pdf
please get informed..god..loves us ..knowing all that we are
is what he gave us to be/some earned better roles[THERE are no small roles[only small actors]

how to explain love to someone who only KNOWS DEATH
GOD KNOWs we are imortal/living energies..having..a mortal life experience/cntinueing or eternall business[real life as we sleep/its a matter of sepperating the dreamer..from his dream/this earthy existance is shock theorpy/to force us to oNE SIDE OR THE OTHER

THE WRITINGS SAY IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN I
http://www.ghostcircle.com/ebooks/JSM_Ward%20-%20Gone_West.pdf

.

Dear Is Mise,

.

Attributing scientifically inexplicable phenomena to a god is a personal opinion. There are many other personal opinions just as valid. Some consider that it is because they walked under a ladder. Others that it is because a black cat crossed the street in front of them. Yet others because it is Friday the 13th. Or that somebody opened an umbrella inside the house.

More positively, there are those who attribute such otherwise inexplicable phenomena to the rabbit foot hanging in their car, or the horse shoe nailed on the wall over their bed. Others consider they were born under a lucky star. Still others simply cross their fingers …

As Suseonline apparently is or was a nurse, it is not surprising that she interprets so-called miraculous healing as the medical profession does: in terms of spontaneous remission. Many illnesses are thought to heal in this way. Medication is often more for comfort than cure. Spontaneous remissions are attributed even to some cancers and serious diseases.

Most religious people seem to think it’s normal that a common cold should heal on its own, but are convinced it’s a miracle when it’s something more serious. In their mind, there is a dividing line beyond which nature becomes ineffective and the supernatural has to be invoked for healing to take place.

There is, of course, no scientific evidence to support either opinion : divine intervention or spontaneous remission.

The Catholic Church, which is known to be particularly fond of miracles, has adopted the strategy, for many years now, of first allowing science to exhaust its panoply of possibilities vainly searching for an explanation and then waiting whatever time is necessary for all material evidence, eye witnesses, etc., to disappear, before declaring a particular phenomenon a miracle.

The Church has learned its lessons from Copernicus, Galileo and the others and no longer attempts to opposes science as in the past. It now wisely leaves what little is known to science and contents itself with the vast territory of the unknown in order to pursue its own particular interests.

.

.

Dear one under god,

.

You wrote:

« THE WRITINGS SAY IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN I »

I beg to differ. « The writings » may (perhaps) be just as sincere as yours, but, I prefer to read your inimitable transcriptions couched in your own, unique, personal style which, over the years, I have learned to decipher and come to appreciate.

In addition, I am sorry to have to disappoint you, but I must confess that I accord absolutely no credence whatsoever to anybody pretending to have insights on anything to do with so-called “spirits” or “after death experiences”.

Please do not interpret this as a denial on my part of the possible existence of any such “spirits” or “after death experiences”. As a general rule, I try to keep an open mind on just about everything but only accord my belief with the utmost parsimony. I do not believe anything which is just a simple possibility or aspiration or hope on my part. I do my best to avoid taking my desires for reality. I only believe what I am convinced is real.

The so-called “supernatural” is a simple proposition so far as I am concerned. Until convinced otherwise, I consider that it is not real, in other words : not “something which exists independently of ideas concerning it”.

The “something”, of course, does not necessarily have to be material. I just have to be convinced that whatever it is, it is real.

I have yet to be convinced that so-called “spirits” are real and that somebody can have “after death experiences”. Some people may affirm that “spirits” are real and that they have had “after death experiences”. I do not believe it. I consider that either they are mistaken – perhaps they are having hallucinations – or they are acting under false pretences.

Their “writings” neither interest nor amuse me.

Whereas - I repeat - yours do.

.

Banjo,

You really need to read up on miracles, the Church and Lourdes.

Miracles do happen; there are reports of them on the net.

individual,

Witty writing is not your strong point!
If there are reports of miracles at Lourdes then there ought to be at least a few refutations of them on the net.
One can find learned refutations of very many other aspects of religion, why not the Lourdes miracles?

Don't disappoint me; don't be out for a duck at Lourdes.