This is the only thing in my post you found worthy of responding to. Interesting.
Unfortunately, I think I basically get the gist of "what you mean." It looks like nihilism to me.
So my argument that existence is primary, because there must be some being that is conscious and something for that being to be conscious of before consciousness is possible is "nihilistic" in your view.
Well, I quote you, "I think I basically get the gist of 'what you mean.'" I will not bother to tell you what it, "looks like," to me. You know what you are and what your true intentions are, and now you know I know.
I admit that some of your responses, your evasions, your apparent shrillness baffled me. I could not imagine why some of my most innocuous responses elicited such strong reactions. It is apparent now.
But you needn't worry or be upset by my posts. Others are not going to be influenced by me. You have the winning hand. Most people would much prefer your position to mine. It is much easier to have your truth "revealed" and not be responsible for what you believe.
Hank
Dear Hank, I do apologize if I have offended you in any way.
I hope I will not be compounding the original "sin" for which I have just apologized by pointing to the source of the exasperation and sheer frustration I have in trying to have a conversation with you. The fact is, as I perceive it, that it simply doesn't matter what the topic under discussion is; inevitably, you make your correspondent the subject of the debate.
The above italics indicates a case in point.
In truth, "my" truth has been "revealed" to me -- by logic, reason, experience; by engagement in the social world; by my reading of the literature and history of mankind; by the contemplation of art; by trying to absorb as much as possible the diversified insights of the various disciplines of human knowledge; by great philosophy, especially that of classical Greece; by participating in and contemplating the glorious beauty of Nature; and by Holy Scripture.
At the end of the day, to the extent that I have to formalize the results of these various lines of inquiry into life and its meaning, so as to become a wise and just moral agent (that's a work-in-progress) I -- and I alone -- am responsible for what I believe. And I am grateful for that "inalienable" responsibility, which reason and free will confer on me.