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I think you are so right to point out that MarkBsnr indeed "has" a spiritual mind. Unfortunately, it seems he's been stuffing it with junk. As Chesterton noted, when a man ceases to believe in God that doesn't mean that he doesn't then believe in nothing. Rather it means he'll believe in anything. Nature hates a vacuum....

I would contend, dear sister that it is you that is filled with recycled stuffing. I do not believe in anything that is not handed down from the Apostles and the Church; whereas the non Christian beliefs are handed out and proselytized with wild abandon.

I also agree with you that MarkBnsr has crossed over into what, for him, should be "forbidden territory": metaphysics. The materialist/mechanistic view of the universe that he seems to hold stipulates that "all things supervene on the physical." That is, the ultimate principle of the universe reduces to matter in its motions. All natural effects must have natural causes. There are absolutely no spiritual or metaphysical principles or entities operating in the universe. To believe otherwise is to confess ignorance and superstition....

There is plenty of superstition here... I realize that there is a separation of the temporal and the spiritual. Those that claim to bridge the gap are either of God or of the tent revival preachers.

What is reality? And how does that relate to this rather interesting post?

What is reality? And how does that relate to this rather interesting post?

Here's the definition of reality from an unimpeachable source — the Oxford English Dictionary. Which I'm thrilled to say is now a free, on-line resource!!!

With regard to your second question — how does "reality" relate to "this rather interesting post?" — the point is the subject matter of the post is referencing a very real phenomenon — something that is actually taking place "in reality," and quite independently of what you or I might think about it. Even if we were to think that what these people are stressing about is "totally false," that does not detract one whit from the fact that this is a very real phenomenon.

In other words, "reality" exists independently of whatever "idealistic or notional ideas" we might have of it. It is not something "produced in our minds."

Dear Mark, you wrote: "I realize that there is a separation of the temporal and the spiritual. Those that claim to bridge the gap are either of God or of the tent revival preachers."

Man, made in the image and likeness of God, already bridges the gap between the temporal and the spiritual. In man, they are not separate.

Or at least, so it seems to me. FWIW.

Thank you so very much, dear Mark, for sharing your thoughts with me (us)!