Ltd.

After extensive analysis, scientists have discovered that Yellow Submarine is The Beatles' best album.

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I want to write something about scope.

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Hordes of Beatles fans descended upon research facilities with placards and banners for their favorite albums, most prominently, Abbey Road, Revolver, and Sgt. Peppers.  "It's devil-math," proclaimed one protestor, "and those scientists are the devil's minions."  Another protestor added, "Until science can prove that the second half of Abbey Road is the most beautiful human creation ever, I have no use for science."

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When someone asks me if I believe in God, I am initially speechless.  I literally have no answer to that question.  I have to talk around the question.  I say things like, I meditate, or, I like to read religious texts, or, I study religion.

My problem is with the verb to believe.  I know how I use it, but not how anyone else will understand it.

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Many people don't recognize the difference between these two statements:

a) I don't believe in God.

b) I believe there is no God.

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Language is a double-agent without allegiance.

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There is a difference between the logical, the emotional, and the intuitive aspects of our selves.  However, our selves are usually a confusion of these impulses.

(I can't even think about whether we should or shouldn't be confused.)

This sounds like Plato.  But I'm not talking about some ideal or some theory.  I'm talking about what I've discovered within myself.

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Also: the imaginative.

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When a person of faith rationally asserts the existence of God, I have a positive emotional response.  The logical, rational side of me completely disregards their statement as if there is nothing whatsoever to consider.

When an atheist rationally asserts the non-existence of God, I admit I have a negative emotional response.  I can't explain or give a reason for my feelings.  But I can say that my logical, rational side finds the person's argument revolting, which might be the cause of my emotional response.

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Science is useful in practical application.  Every tool has a proper use.

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Why do I violently react against the flawed logic of an atheist while I turn a blind eye to the flawed logic of a person of faith?

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I am lucky.

I wouldn't expect an experiment to provide any evidence for this.

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I felt the same about Jerry Falwell as I do about Richard Dawkins.

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A leap of faith is a sign of a healthy intuition.

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I'm thinking of superstition as an intellectual error.  Science is logical, rational, and should replace superstition.

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If someone asks me if I believe in magick, I am initially speechless.  I talk around the question.  I say something like, I do magick, or, I practice magick.

I do not believe in magick.  Nor do I disbelieve in it.

My intellectual and intuitive understandings of the world don't always coincide.

Sometimes they would appear to be in direct contradiction.

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I contain Whitmans.

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A leap of faith is best committed with the full recognition of its absurdity.

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When atheists quote logic, reason, the scientific method as better than God, I am reminded of religious fundamentalists who disavow evolution or the Big Bang.  They make a perfect pair: they are two sides of the same mistake.

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It's good to have a scientific, intellectual understanding.

A sound intellect recognizes its limits.

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A leap of faith, when recognized as absurd, indicates that the intellect and the intuition are both fully formed and independently functioning.

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There is no material evidence for or against the existence of God.  

Limits.

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If a person should decide to dedicate himself entirely to an intellectual understanding of the world, their position will be agnostic.  When asked if they believe in God, they will respond, I have no opinion.

An atheist is a person of faith.

(I can't understand why anyone would make a negative leap of faith; by negative I mean that they assert absence.)

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I have spoken with many atheists who think their position is rational.  

Since they do not recognize the intuitive root of their position, reason fails to sway their opinion.

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If an atheist admits that their position is one of faith, my negative emotional response immediately becomes neutral.  Though I cannot understand them, I respect that they don't make the intellectual mistake made by lesser atheists or religious fundamentalists.  

I do not use reason to sway these greater atheists to agnosticism.

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Intuition, as seen in the case of lesser atheists and religious fundamentalists, can cloud and distort reason.

Reason does not seem capable of influencing intuition.

Therefore, intuition is the greater faculty.

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I seek, but have not yet found, an intuitive communication.

Double agent.