[MD] Faith/Skepticism

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Michael]
That *you* chose to twist that into a lousy argument for or against 
the existence of God is on *your* shoulders, not mine.

[Arlo]
I'm not making an argument in either direction. You said you see 
evidence for god. I simply pointed out that such "evidence" rests on 
very selective, decontextualized interpretation. I mean, if someone 
says "There is a rainbow, see, that's proof that leprechauns exist", 
how would you like me to respond? I mean, can you prove to me 
leprechauns DO NOT exist? Can you ever prove a negative? Prove to me 
Elvis is not alive and working as a waiter in Vegas. If you dig up 
his body and show me DNA I can say its simply a ruse, a clever ploy 
to plant DNA to throw seekers of the path. Eyewitnesses? They are all 
lying. So... do we say "Because we can't prove Leprechauns do not 
exist, we must conclude Leprechaunism is as valid as any other 
explanatory narrative"?

[Michael]
The question you should be asking, and asking yourself if this 
actually interests you is *why* does man do one or the other, and why 
do we consistently recoil from the evil and praise the good?

[Arlo]
I don't know if history bears evidence that humans "recoil from 
evil". I think it could almost be seen to embrace it. "Evil" is also 
perspective. We find human sacrifice to be, for example, generally 
evil. To the Maya, it was an honor to be called to travel to the 
spirit world and speak for the people to the gods. But, humans do 
appear to have a psychological need to feel the protection of an 
external benefactor, or to feel somehow "special" in their existence. 
I think these are relics of the immaturity of the species, personally.