Atheist Turned Believer

 I promised that the last post was, indeed, the last post I would type regarding my thoughts on theism v. atheism.  I have no intention of going back on that promise.  Over the last few weeks, however, I've come to realize that this blog is probably a good place to store my various musings for future reference, so I'll be adding more posts to that end.  These will not be for public consideration.  I will not be making timely checks to see how many people have read them, made comments, etc.  These will be simply for my own reference.  I'm hoping that, years from now, I can come back here and say, "oh, yeah.  I remember that.  That was pretty smart/stupid of me."  What follows is the first of those musings. In reference to life, let us consider the metaphor of one of those old pre-CGI epic films, the ones with "a cast of thousands."  We're talking Ben Hur , Lawrence of Arabia , Anthony and Cleopatra stuff.  Regarding end credits...

 Looking back, I see that I've been posting tidbits on this blog for 2 1/2 years.  In that time, I seem to have elicited no reactions from anyone beyond my own pastor.  I believe my peak readership has been 30-35 readers, and I'm pretty sure at least half of them were robots.  I confess to having grown tired of talking to myself, and I have therefore decided to bring this effort to an end.  Before I go, and in case someone ever does read this, I'd like to sum up a few points in closure. We are rarely aware of where our opinions come from, and virtually never of where others get theirs.  As David Smith, philosopher and lecturer in Ethics at Washington State, notes, "We have an assumption that people choose their opinions... [but they don't.]  Their beliefs form naturally over the course of their lives."  (quoted in I Never Thought of It that Way ; Guzman, Monica; Ben-Bella Books; 2022; p. 133)  I would add that there's even more to it than tha...