Circles and arrows

[moongirlk]

I said:
> > who tries mediation, supplication and humor to avoid conflict and 
> > wonders if anyone knows what the circles and arrows reference is 
> about

Dave tried valiantly...
> 
> Sounds like Oliver Wood to me - but that was wiggly lines, wasn't 
>it?

...but my train of thought is too convoluted for him, or maybe he's 
just never visited Alice's restaurant.


> 
> On a more serious note, if a religion makes statements which claim 
to 
> empirically verifiable, then it should be prepared to be 
> called 'wrong', and if it doesn't, one wonders whether it is worth 
> bothering with
> 

I prefer the term faith to religion.  (look out, tangent coming!) 
Religion implies an institution of some sort, and is too often used 
to hate, kill. opress, etc.  From my understanding, God is going to 
deal very harshly with those who use His name for such ends.
  
But back to empirically verifiable stuff in re faith.  I have faith 
that there's a God who knows what's Going On even if I don't, and 
somehow manages to love us all despite the fact that we're such a 
bunch of screwups most of the time.  There's a whole bunch of stuff 
that goes along with that, which is why people do rely on the Bible, 
and those who are serious try to make sure they're using the most 
faithful translation and research ambiguities, possible 
contradictions, etc. (we are encouraged in the Bible itself to scour 
scripture to make sure we are getting correct teaching - I think this 
includes that sort of research).

Hey, where'd I put that point I was trying to make... Aha!  The point 
is the whole idea of faith is that there *is* no empirical proof, and 
you choose to believe it anyway.  It's a bit of a gamble, but to 
paraphrase liberally Pascal, the payoff is great if you're right, and 
to paraphrase the Missouri Lottery more directly, You can't win if 
you don't play.

Boy, I sound like a freak.  

kimberly
who, if you're entertained by any of that, also has a "Witness 
Protection Program as Christian allegory" theory.  What's that?  No 
takers?  Hmmm...