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This e-mail was received on October 26, 2000 as a return visit from the owner of a Christian website. While I did respond, he didn't seem inclined to discuss these issues so I won't include my e-mail to him (or is it her?). The writer had some nice things to say, but I've posted only the comments directly related to my apologetic instead of the whole letter. There is a references to a dialogue within his letter...I've followed my usual practice of not including e-mail addresses in these e-mail snippets to keep the privacy of the writer. I have, however, placed a link to the Venerable Bede's web site within my linkpage through which you may find this dialogue. Received e-mail is in bold.

Your apologetic:

If the commonalities of spiritual systems are unreliable, the differences don't matter.
ME: If the commonalities are what matter we can agree to disagree on the rest.

The universe doesn't need a maker for it to be.
ME: But it shows plenty of signs of having one (the dialogue covers my views on this)

Spirits are not necessary for gestation.
ME: Neither is good sex but it both exists and is a good thing :).

"Mind" is a name for brain activity.
ME: I profoundly and utterly disagree.

Love is chemistry.
ME: But not just to do with chemicals.

Life doesn't need a maker.
ME: Although we've no idea how it came to be.

Geology is understood, and punctuated equilibrium is the key.
ME: Unless I'm Richard Dawkins (actually I am a neo Darwinist).

Hominid evolution is understood.
ME: And explains our bodies.

Human languages can be traced back beyond Proto-Indo-European.
ME: Except the ones, like Basque, that can't.

No particular religious hero is unassailable.
ME: And nor is anything else.

Religion has a history, but that does not necessarily mean a goal-oriented process is occuring.
ME: Christianity has made the world a better place.

Morality and ethics are social inventions.
ME: Objective morality is either real or slavery can be OK.

Patterns are not necessarily indicative of artifice or of intent.
ME: But may well be.

A broad range of studies support themselves on each other's discoveries without supernatural help.
ME: So the universe is the product of one mind.