waybread, I'm glad to hear more about your husband's point of view, and appreciate your distinction. I suppose that is what I was getting at -- most atheists do in fact believe in a version of (what I'd call) 'God', ie something bigger than themselves that must be surrendered to, powerful (in whatev...

waybread, I appreciate your hope to avoid dichotomy and expound a model that works for both the believer and the atheist. However, I hope you don't mind me saying that, in so doing, you do actually seem to be pursuing a separate dichotomy and making some big assumptions about how the perfection of t...

So you are saying the notion of causality is the wrong question because it is all part of an integrated system? I agree, it is clear that it is not something so simple as, say, a reflection. And as mere parts of the whole, we cannot comprehend the working of the whole, only get clues from the other ...