[Andrew Mandelbaum]

Originally Posted by W.F. Lantry

Julie,

But no prism allows for the equivalent of both the Muse and Mary, so I'm left with a troubling and unresolvable dichotomy: on the one hand, my lived experience, on the other, any reasonable system of theology.

I thank the mud and the stars every day no one system can touch the depth and scope of it all. That would be a disaster. The all encompassing prism. To go with Dawkin's salivating for an optimally design eye. Primates with sharper sniper and sentry skills and a text you really could build a gallows upon. Prisms are small. Have a few.

[Michael F]

Andrew, you brought to mind this wonderful quote by Lessing:

“If God held all truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left hand the persistent striving after the truth . . . and should say, ‘Choose!’ I should humbly bow before his left hand and say, ‘Father, give me the striving. For pure truth is for thee alone’.”

Julie, I am with you, I think there is no empirical answer. I do believe that a Muse can be both a person, an actual human being, and an inscrutable power, combined in a way we cannot understand. I believe that because that is my experience...