> I agree with pretty much every bit of your post, except that "tenant" should be "tenet". (More people get that wrong than not, so don't feel singled out.)

Bah. That's one of those things where proofing your own stuff just doesn't help. I know the two words are different, but, you know how it goes...

> *sigh* I've tried four or five starts to a response, but with each approach I feel I'm not really getting to the meat of the issue. I'm gonna have to think about this some more and get my thoughts together about it. Maybe someone else will have something to say that will make that darn light bulb come on in my head.

Heh, that's okay. The post was rambling and at several points I sort of went off on tangents that surprised *me*. I'm sure it's hard to reply to.

Another thought that occured to me: I was talking to somebody once who is fairly anti-religious but apparently believes in magic. I was sort of shocked, and I asked her why this was so. Certainly, I thought, any complaints she had about lack of proof for God would be applicable regarding the existence of magic. Her reply surprised me, but I've heard it again since then. She said she believed in magic because otherwise the world would be too boring.

I feel sorry for people who feel this way. Assuming that there is absolutely no supernatural aspect to life at all, the universe is a fascinating place! Are we so intellectually bored that we need to believe in magic to have a bit of wonder in our lives?

I can go outside and look at a sunset and be awed by it. I know a bit about the way atmosphere scatters different wavelengths of light depending on where the sun is in the sky, so I know what causes sunsets to look so spectacular. It's not mysterious in the least. And yet they continue to be astonishing. If I ever feel bored, all I need to do is look up at the night sky. Sure, I know that all those points of light I'm seeing are really great big balls of super heated gases, really nothing more than fusion power plants, that I'm only seeing the remnants of light originally created thousands of years ago, but... it's still spectacular.

In a way, knowing the magnitude of the universe and the ways in which it works only makes it more interesting. Sure, it might be kind of interesting to think the stars control my fate, but in a way they're more majestic when I know what they actually are.

Stephen