I applaud your post AO. I read it three times in a row just to make sure I understood it all.
I especially enjoyed the paragraph on evangelists. I've listened to many Jehovah's Witnesses, and while they are not literalists in every sense (i.e. they believe in an old earth), they are certainly evangelists. Their door-to-door message seems to have a very reasoning tone to it. They start with basic axioms that everyone accepts (like the world isn't in great shape), and then try to build on those through steadily more believable premises.
Your paragraph made perfect sense to me as I reflected on those expieriences.
I do take issue with one tiny thing though.
The other functions still get their due. Science is not the only thing humans do. We have art, we have relationships, we have exercise, we have philosophy. A well-rounded life, like a well-rounded education, runs on all four cylinders.
I would argue that philosophy does not belong in a different catagory than science. Philosophy should be just as verifiable and logical as biology or any other science. Philosophy doesn't equal opinions. I realize this is off topic a bit, so if anyone wants to talk about this I'll start a new forum.
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