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.
Good grief. If those who go out of their way to offend cannot, certainly nothing you said, which I know would never be inteded to that end, is going to offend me.
But, if you are sincere, you might answer one question. What is consciousness?
(For example, you have suggested that consciousness might be attributed to the entire universe or reality. I am interested if you mean the same thing by the word consciousness as I mean when I say, "when I am asleep, I am not conscious, when I awake again, I am.")
Hank