West,
"This is not unlike Aqvarius's claim that theists hold a knowledge superiority over agnostics."

I have made no such claim. I do not believe that a person of faith, any faith, is superior to one claiming the absents of a faith.

I find your characterization of my post an ugly misuse of this forum.

If you must use one of my post to provide impetus to your tedious anti religion rants please do me the courtesy of cutting and pasting a complete sentence with in context.

Truly, I suggest you find another method to promote your cleverness.

Your anti religious ranting is no better than any ranting based on a fixed orthodoxy or institutional dogma. If you actually believe that your star trek scenario is equal to or explains any theology than you must also accept that Aesop's Fables are in full the perfect replacement for understanding sociology and political science.

And no I'm not religious. I don't belong to any theological school of thought, or practice a religion. I do have understanding for those who have a deep and abiding faith. I believe in more than myself and I know for damn sure that what goes around comes around.

G.K. Chesterton, "When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything."

Don't confuse a belief in a God, or a higher power to be religion. Theology is not exclusive to religion. Since the dawn of time man has contemplated the existence of God, his place with in the wider nature of world. Of universe. His spiritual value.
The mysteries of life and death. The awe inspiring moment of sitting on your backside in the grass watching a glorious sunset and thinking that for a brief moment you felt the entirety of your senses become one with yourself and your world. That second where everything seems to stop and one feels to have been touched by the very hand of God. Who-ya Baby!

I hope this little nudge gives you some opportunity to regain your intellectual footing and acquire a little tolerance.

Is there a spirit world? Of beings other than human - NO! However there are many spirits communicating here on this site. We can see none of the other posters on this site, but we can certainly know their spirits. They are present, they do exist, they are real. They are there trying to influence idea, thought, action, belief - all are spirits with their own agenda.

The spirits of "Satan" (Satan a Hebrew term identifying opponents of pure and right living; opposed to the God of all truth and proper function of all reality) are evident in the attitudes and motivations of those here. They will speak up against right and moral living as they cannot oppose their own lack of moral conscience in their behaviour and attitudes. The greatest opponents of God do so because it excuses their lifestyle and attitudes to right living. There are no spirits without a body. God is not a spirit, He is spirit. God is the revelation of enlightenment, the word enacted in flesh. He is not the mortal flesh. God is the way the truth the life!

West: "Or Donnie if you back the wrong deity you are as stuffed as those who refuse to worship the moons of Jupiter."
I guess these are the risks you take in the game of Religion Roulette.

On the subject of agnosticism here's something to think about:
"The weak agnostic especially leaves himself with an important decision, more so than any other postition taken on the questions of God and spirituality. That is whether to engage in a search for the knowledge that they think insufficient or whether to leave the questions up in the air. While the strong agnostic has taken the stance that it is not possible to know, and the theists, materialists and spiritualists have subscribed to certain viewpoints, none of these are really still facing the burning question of do they want to *know*, because they have already to some extent decided on what they consider to be true, or have at least decided on a particular area in which to take up the search. (I'd suggest that any of those still searching in some field are still partially (weak) agnostic at heart anyway).
So the search for truth and knowledge is a road before the weak agnostic primarily, and whether to embark upon it or not is the decision they face. And if the quest is undertaken, either they will find their answer or not, or will move closer to it or further from it. But if they do not seek it at all, it is not likely to fall in their lap or they would not know it if it did. So the question becomes is it better to have searched and not found than never to have searched at all?"

I believe there really is no other more worthwhile endeavour than the search for truth even if it does turn out to be futile, because if you get to the end and have not found the answers what have you really lost? Yet if you do find the answers, what do you stand to gain?.

Aqvarius dont take it personally you just simply happen to be a person demonstrating the the poor value base and antiethical position a god believer asserts. I have nothing against you personally. You only allow me to point out that the radical extreme prejudice that god believers hold against persons who are not superstitious. I understand god is the god believers ego so anything sugesting truth or reality is a threat seen by the believer toward the god but in reality it is taken as a threat to the ego. This is where your hatred towards atheists or antitheists or spiritualists stems from. But now Philo demonstrates it even clearer as he equates those who do not agree with him with the devil. Philo it is no coincedence the degradation of values and moral standards has coincided with the latest rise of Christian evangilism. The fact that Christians and indeed Muslims religion in general deny they are the greatest cause of the degradation of morality is merely symptomatic that such cults are deceit based anyway.

Everybody is born atheist , no baby worships idols of Jesus or Mohommed. Children can only be brainwashed into believing in spirits and gods when their brains proceed to the monsters under the bed stage of development. Even then psycho extremist concepts such as god have to be forced upon the child. What you are suggesting Philo to persecute atheists you are suggesting persecuting children , which did occur in Christian Europe in the cause of Christianity between 700 to the end of the 1600's or in the case of Catholicism the end of the inquistion in the 1800's.

Philo posts "The greatest opponents of God do so because it excuses their lifestyle and attitudes to right living. There are no spirits without a body. God is not a spirit, He is spirit. "

I'm amused by much of the funny ha ha beliefs that abound like grim jack-in-a-box teddies and unseemly teddy trinities but Philo the virtuous, here makes a good case for funny peculiar because isn't teddy more concerned with spirit confiscation? Perhaps Philo's "real character" may enlighten everyone on what he means in the above with special attention to his understanding of "spirit" and its essence, uniqueness, fundamental preciousness, physicality and connectedness.

Let's just say that I'm not optimistic about receiving a dogma-free response from the "right living" Philo. BUT, sometime for myself, play can include attempting from the beyond if simply for the amusement.

Dont get angry with me try and seperate your god from your ego. Again I hold nothing personal against you. It is part of the dungeons and dragons game that Christians constantly and are dependent on making outrages claims mostly to try and convince others of their moral and phantasmic constitutional superiority. Of course to be able to do that and believe it true is to deny all that is true. So therefore as many defendants at Nuremburg in 45 & 46 denied the holocaust Christianity has to deny ties with its own history even though that history is not finished.

Speaking of which a relation through marriage who served with British forces in WW2 took part in the liberation of a concentration camp and told me he had become an atheist that day because he had an epiphany that 'man should not follow shadows that shadows should follow man'. I think he was right and the less a shadow such as a god or philosophy can be held accountable for its evocations the more dire it becomes for everybody. We see this at the extremist muslims want to force sharia law on innocent people and extremist Christians want to force Old testament law onto innocent people.