First, thank you for the measured response to my rather strident post. I admire that.

I've glanced at Tech's reply. I've read enough of him in areas where I know my stuff to realize that his flights of fancy usually don't have a basis in fact AND they are firmly held and believed. And for years I've racked my brain as to how an otherwise reasonable person can hold such irrational views. (Don't get me wrong, I think SDAI is a little prick, but that's not a deal-breaker. There are a lot of them, and they can be amusing and interesting. TB seems to be more adult and likeable as long as some topics are avoided.)

I was watching TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) and it hit me. The human brain can be exceedingly plastic and will believe anything it's owner wants it to believe. The Resurrection? Done! Virgin birth? Of course! George Bush didn't lie? Of course not. By definition. Let's not talk reality or facts, lets talk faith. One must have faith, or be an immoral heathen condemned to Hell. Forever, in fire and flames. By a loving God, a forgiving God. And that is believed. Faith. God said it, I believe it, that settles it!

I know I'm not immune to the same thing. Every once in a while I try to examine my beliefs. Most recently I've looked at my prejudices against homeopathy and the US leaving POWs behind. After research and an open mind I've come to understand that homeopathy is BS, and that the US left POWs behind after both Korea and Vietnam. (Any POW captured in Laos or Cambodia, about as many as were captured in VN, was left. Thank KIssinger and Nixon. And any POW captured in Red China or Russia, airmen and aircrews, during the Korean War, were left. Thank Eisenhower and Dulles.)

And Tech and TB decide to believe something and Bigawd it is fact and they will use it to create all manner of flights of fancy. There may be facts and reality within those flights but the cores are rotten. And yet they believe because they want to believe. Otherwise their systems would collapse and along with it their self-worth. They have to be correct, and anything which would indicate otherwise must be wrong. QED. Done. Settled.

So that's how they can believe that which is not believable, that which is wrong, that for which there is no basis. Faith, and a desire to bend their brains out of shape and just plain believe.

I've gone on too long. Thanks again for your calming reply.

Arf