Recent content by MarkD

Any chance you can summarize that post? It looks as though we disagree about what it is that gives rise to God belief. I doubt if I would ever know exactly What God is no matter how long I looked into it. But I certainly don’t think it is anything like studying plumbing or medicine. There is...

From the article: “While a newborn’s "intrinsic maleness" or “intrinsic femaleness” may be difficult to assess in certain more complicated intersex cases, the point remains that there is an "intrinsic" or "underlying" sexual constitution that we must do our best to recognize, respect, and act...

It doesn’t persuade me because, while I do think there is something real and important that supports God belief in our species, I don’t think it is anything like a unified being out there somewhere with subjective experience like our own. I think that is what the vast majority of Christians...

Hi Tracy. I can see what a difficult position that must have been at the homeless shelter. (I helped run one of those one winter as well.) It is obviously a practical problem but I don’t think it’s being inconvenient means other genders don’t exist or need never be accommodated. Your...

Oops. There didn’t seem to be anyway to follow what I quoted with a comment so it looks like I’ll have to make my comment on your excellent post here. I entirely agree. It is challenging to find a forum of either type where group-think and conformity isn’t rampant. What is wrong with both...

I am curious by what definition you think every human being is rightly classified as only female or male. The thread I created on BioLogos was only about intersex conditions where biology itself does not resolve neatly into just those two categories. Admittedly it is a small slice of the...

Since I never really adopted a Christian POV I don’t need to abandon it. But I feel something for Christians perhaps because it has been such a big part of mother culture in the milieux I grew up around. Plus I admire those that choose faith without deluding themselves about ever achieving...

Not long ago I started a thread titled "Male and female He Created them .. and sometimes intersex" at the Christian site BioLogos with this post which garnered more discussion than any other thread I've started there: "I knew that mix-ups in sexual expression sometimes happen but I had no idea...

Belated thanks. My only regret is how little traffic there is on the agnostic furums I’ve tried. If that keeps the cluelessly rude away perhaps that is okay.

It seems we agree though you seem to be making contact the focus of your practice. My recognition of something more within has happened in a number of ways but the only ways I still pursue is nature and creativity. I don’t feel an urgency for more contact. I like to say that life is like...

I'd probably feel the same way if I'd never experienced anything of the sort. Had I been raised in a cohesive cultural institution which had disposed me to look for what that was in a particular form, I'd probably be testifying to it. Instead I'm here to say it is real and it is important but...

I have serious doubt about that. God belief has arisen almost everywhere and as far back as we can peer, but is it necessarily the case that belief arose through interaction with an advanced being? Was that the cause? The attributes of this God remind us of its importance but in all cases...

Politics? Where does that come from? Language is more complex than most believers or nonbelievers seem to recognize. When you say atheism is a position on the existence of God you are assuming an awful lot about the nature of God. Pretty surprising if in fact you haven't any experience of...

I've been on forums for a while but not from the earliest days. I've been on AF.org (a truly horrible atheist forum run by the scum of the earth .. in my unbiased opinion); agnosticsinternational.org (nice place but a ghost town in terms of usage); another agnostic site which was more a dating...