From: cates_db@hotmail.com   
      
   On 2026-02-24 8:11 p.m., MarkE wrote:   
      
   [big snip]   
      
   >   
   > I maintain that reality is either theism or not ("not" being   
   > materialism, atheism, deism, pantheism etc). You seem to reject theism   
   > as a *possibility* - why is that?   
   >   
   Okay, let me play.   
      
   I maintain that reality is either naturalism (what you see is what you   
   get materialism) or not ('not" being supernaturalism, theism being one   
   of an infinite number of supernatural proposals)   
      
   As a materialist I reject the supernatural as a legitimate explanation   
   for reality. I admit that there is much of reality that we (currently)   
   have not coherent explanation for and concede that there may be aspects   
   of reality that we lack the intellectual capacity to ever understand,   
   but supernatural explanations seem to be be mere personally generated   
   placeholders for "I/we don't know".   
   Theism is one of many supernatural 'explanations'. Among theists there   
   are a multitude of incompatible 'explanations'.   
      
   I have found that most (all?) defenders of theism have one particular   
   version of theism in mind and personally reject most other versions.   
   IMHO this is intellectually dishonest.   
      
   --   
   --   
   Don Cates ("he's a cunning rascal" PN)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)