re: #77 Bob Levin

Well, that was just about the messiest exchange possible. I believe the US negotiations with North Vietnam were smoother.

Yeah, the words were flying fast & furious. Thanks for being concerned enough to go back and slog through all that.

I don’t even know where to begin—other than I applaud the efforts of everyone trying to derive content from comments so covered in thorns. Of course (surprising), folks couldn’t quite get to the content, because there was always another layer of thorns.

It would have been nice if there could have been a discussion about Holy Sites, maybe the definition of Holy, but that discussion didn’t take place.

Covered in thorns—that’s a very apt description. Maybe we can have the discussion about the definition of Holy another time, after everyone’s scratches have had a chance to heal up. I hope we can. I think it would be very interesting and probably enlightening. Definitions can be a bugbear when it comes to communication, especially when everyone has a different one.

I’ll say this. Over the centuries religious institutions have defined religion in such a way as to make religious dialogue almost impossible. That’s what has to be overcome, the layers of misunderstandings that masquerade as basic religious teaching. These misdirected definitions even make political discussions about the Middle East very difficult.

Even the notion of atheism is affected by these very poor definitions.

But, wow. What a mess.

I think you’re onto something there. We have to talk about it more soon. Deal?