Dear Poirot,

<<I suspect Yuyutsu would say that the destruction taking place in Gaza has nothing whatsoever to do with God>>

In broad terms yes, but to be precise, since everything is God, even Gaza, I would have said that what happens in Gaza has no more to do with God than tasting ice-cream.

Dear Pericles,

<<It is the involuntary nature of these followings>>

Just as riding on planet earth, you follow it around the sun - I didn't hear you complaining about that.
At least while following God you can always [almost] stop, rest and watch the view.

<<how are you able to detect this movement?>>

Did I say I can?

<<Add to this your confusing claim that God simultaneously exists and does not exist>>

Have I not made it clear that God does not exist?

Anything that exists has defects (if nothing else it has the defect of not being able to not exist).
Abrahamic followers claim on the one hand that God exists, and on the other hand that He has no defects. That's a contradiction!

Western culture places a disproportional emphasis on existence.
Why should existence be a condition for love and worship?
that's just a prejudice!

Of course if you are out to gain something, then you would look for an existent body that can provide it. If you treat your deity as a provider, then you attempt to bargain with it, to please it. True love, however, is not asking for anything, hence existence should not be required.

Dear Belly,

Perhaps there are 4200 deities as you say (though I doubt there's even one), but personally I have no interest in mere deities.

<<And is a unified human race possible if we continue to squabble over God?>>

Why only humans, what about all others?
Once you realise that you are God and so is everyone else, then you are united with them!

Yuyitsu <"By your own statements, you want all reference to religion removed from schools. Hello!"

Is that right? Where did I say that?

I was only talking about public supposedly secular schools as you well know.
There aren't enough atheists around to make much of a difference to what happens at public hospitals or schools, surely?

I would suggest that it is more often political correctness within Government owned institutions that lead to the removal of religious symbols of Christianity in places where there are many other religions and cultures that don't want to be swamped by Christian symbols?

Deities don't exist.

A singular deity doesn't exist.

Gods don't exist.

A singular god doesn't exist.

The human species is not God.

God is not the human species.

Nature is neither a deity, deities, god or gods or God or Gods.

They are the FACTS. The more educated and informed humans become, the less likely we are as a whole to believe in ancient, uneducated myths and superstitions.

Long live knowledge, science, education and freedom. These four things are "slowly" bringing us out of the dark ages. The old, ignorant myths and superstitions will eventually be a thing of the past.

Dear Pete,

I see no point in a engaging in a shouting match with you about what is and what isn't, etc.
- it's fruitless, I have no use for a hoarse throat and it wouldn't change reality one iota anyway!

I only refer to one of your sentences:

<<Long live knowledge, science, education and freedom.>>

Does 'knowledge' accommodate anything but that particular part of objective knowledge that can be ascertained by scientific empirical evidence?

Does 'science' accommodate non-empirical science?

Does 'education' accommodate any teachings that are not based on empirical science and objective information?

Does 'freedom' accommodate the freedom to worship, follow and live by what either doesn't exist or is deemed by yourself or by the regime of the day as non-existent?

Or are the above to be surpressed in your ideal world and their practitioners jailed, tortured, killed or forcibly brain-washed in secular re-education camps?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Nice "strawman" argument there Yuyu. I love the way you twist my words to mean something different, then you conclude with a series of "implied" assertions regarding my world "implying" that this is what I believe in.

This strawman technique enables you to then adopt the high moral ground, by arguing against something that I didn't actually say, and against a way of life and retribution that I don't remotely condone (clearly you have not bothered to properly read my other posts here on this topic where I address certain issues regarding your accusations).

Then you say I'm shouting at you .... because you have no logical reply to my previous post. You've been shown the facts of life, and it annoys you immensely. So you pretend you're being shouted at. Are you trying to gain the sympathy vote?

Nice try Yuyu. Believe me, you are no God. You are as mortal as any creature on this planet.

The 4 pillars of an informed populace:

(1) Education ..... encompassing ALL knowledge available

(2) Science .... encompassing ALL knowledge available

(3) Knowledge .... logical conclusions encompassing ALL knowledge available

(4) Freedom .... a byproduct of education, science and knowledge. An informed populace is MUCH more likely to be a free populace.

"Some" believers of old myths and superstitions are quite anti education, science, knowledge and freedom for all. Why? Because the possession of these 4 things empowers people, and makes it very much harder to control them and subject them to myths and superstitions.