Also,you seem to be a well mannered gentleman,i commend you in the way you conduct your conversations on here,but lets be honest,some of the questions you ask of people who believe differantly from yourself imo are strawmen questions in the firstplace to justify your own beliefs,you really have made your mind up on what you believe,so unless someone could explain themselves in 5minutes flat about what sometimes it has taken them a lifetime to learn,you really dont want to know
This is not a personal attack,just mostly non believers vs believers convos usually dont work because of bias in the firstplace....
bowral,
I don't regard what you say as a personal attack, but as a well meant criticism. I accept your views on some of my questions, and can appreciated why you came to the conclusion that you did - I need to take more care in how I phase them. I apologise if I'm reading more into your words than you intend.
On the question of criticism I have no issues with it - criticism can be a great teacher and is part of living in a democracy. If anyone posting on this forum expects to escape criticism then they may be disappointed.
On the question of firmly held views (again, perhaps I misreading your words), I sometimes wish that I could hold views (ref: you really have made your mind up on what you believe) as firmly as some people appear to be able to do. I would accept the criticism that I run "hot and cold".
In my lifetime I have held many views and changed my mind many times. As a result of recent posts here I've started rethinking what "historic fact" really means. I have regarded history as the biased view of the victors, but realise that there is more to it than that.
The degree to which I have changed was brought home to me recently. Owing to circumstances my partner and I have virtually become parents to our grandchildren. The way we "see things" and approach this task is, for better or for worse, very different from the first time we fulfilled a parent's role.
