• I. The Idea
• 11/7/11
  
  
• II. Opening Statement
• 11/7/11
• 
  

• III. Procedures
• 2/13/11
  
  
• IV. Prosecution
• 4/29/11
  
  
• V. Caveats
• 4/30/11
  
  
• VI. App's Responses
• 11/7/11
  
  VII. Magic
• 5/10/11
  
  
• VIII. God
• 5/2/11
  
  
• VIII. Immortality
• 12/3/09
  
  
• IX. The Math
• 9/12/11
  
  
• X. Prophecy
• 5/3/11
  
  
• XI. Lesser Issues
• 5/2/11
  
  
• XII. Lesser Answers
• 4/22/11
  
  
• XIII. Genetic Jesus
• 4/13/09
  
  
• XIV. The Stars
• 1/28/10
  
  
• XV. The Shroud
• 8/24/11
  
• 
  
• 
  
• XVI. Debates
• 6//15/11
  
  
• XVII. Autobiography
• 11/18/11
  
  
• XVIII. Bibliography
• 3/13/11
  
• I. Our Purpose
• 12/20/12
• II. Our Plan
• 12/20/12
  
  
• 
  

Spot: How are you feeling today?

Jane: Fine.

Dick: Fine.

Spot: If it’s ok with you, I’ll just take up where I left off the last time.

Dick (huffily): That sounds good to me. Just get on with it... please.

Spot: OK. No need to get huffy.

Dick: Hrrumph.

Spot:
-- As I was pointing out the last time, I have already introduced some evidence in support of G-d -- as well as some non-evidentiary considerations that should also advance His case. Here are some more considerations already introduced but not pointed out.
-- Though suggesting that G-d is “timeless” may have little significance for many, it should have plenty of significance for others —— by subtracting a dimension, I have added a whole new perspective. Not that we can actually conceive of “timelessness”, but the ultimate truth is probably not something of which we can “conceive” anyway. And, for some of us at least, “timeless” just feels right, and the issue of immortality takes on a new —— more believable —— slant. We are no longer talking about “forever”, we’re talking about something else...
-- Then, laying out your reasons for not believing should also have advanced my case a bit. It should have made your conclusions seem much more vulnerable. You were sitting there in the jury box, feeling smug, with your minds already made up, and I exposed the reasoning that had made up your minds, and had made you feel so smug -- I know where your battleships are.
-- From another angle, I know the reasons that you have felt so smug about your conclusions, yet I still seem pretty smug about mine. Maybe, you missed something. Maybe, I DO know something that you don’t.
-- Suggesting that there is more here than has met your eye and that you take your own intelligence too seriously should help also —— you should be able to recognize the applicability of these two preemptive caveats, and pointing them out just helps to remind you. Which helps to open your mind. Which is the first step.

Jane:
-- I guess that what you’re saying makes some sense ——but where are you going with all this? I can see that there might be some flaws in my thinking, but this is pretty mild stuff you’re offering up and I’m still pretty skeptical. When are you going to role out a smoking gun or something?

Spot:
-- When I first started working on the farm, I couldn’t tell a ripe ear of sweet corn from a tomatoe, but after a summer of “pulling” (picking) corn, I was something of an expert at telling which ears were ripe and which ears were not. It’s something you develop a feel for, overtime, through experience. I suggest that suspecting that G-d exists is not dissimilar and in that sense, you probably won’t encounter the “smoking gun” you’ve been looking for...
-- But also, I see this “trial” as analogous to a civil case here rather than a criminal one in that my objective here is to develop a preponderance of evidence rather than to prove anything. And even then, it isn’t like you have to decide yes or no -- I just figure that the more I can add to your suspicion that G-d exists, the better...
-- So, while a smoking gun would be nice, it isn’t critical and I suspect that I have some important exhibits to enter even if I don’t have a smoking gun.
-- But then, as it turns out, I do have a smoking gun to roll out —— it’s just that you probably won’t be able to see it when I do...

Jane:
-- Wait a minute, wait a minute... That’s the worst copout I ever heard.
-- After this big build up, you’re going to tell us that you have a smoking gun, just that we won’t be able to see it? Give me a break!

Spot:
-- (Aside: I guess this was a bridge we had to cross sooner or later.)
-- Not quite. You modified what I said.
-- I said “probably”, and also, I indicated something about the time -- you probably won’t be able to see it when I roll it out... In other words, you may be able to see it when I role it out and you may very well be able to see it later on.
-- There’s a sequence in the movie, Field of Dreams, where Mark, Ray Cansella’s brother-in-law, is trying to convince Ray to sell his farm, when all of a sudden he asks, “When did all these ball players get here?” The ghost ballplayers had been there all along, just that Mark hadn’t been able to see them before. This can happen to you.
-- Enlightenment, awakening, happens in two ways -- gradually, as in picking sweet corn, and suddenly, as in seeing ghosts. Even in the sudden case, however, a lot of experience goes into the revelation. In math, they might call this a “step function”.
-- So... you can gradually watch the evidence mount and you can expect to gradually see that G-d makes sense —— you can gradually come to realize that we didn’t make Him up out of thin air, as it first appears. But also, you can hope (and reasonably so) that something is happening unseen in your neurology and that suddenly you will see something that you had no inkling of before. And once noticed, you might realize that in some way, it had been there all along. Things change. Take heart.

Jane:
-- OK. I get your point. But, I’d really like a shot at your smoking gun... Sorry...

Spot:
-- That’s all right. You've got it.
-- But I think it’s time for me to drop my disguise... Trying to be clever is using up all my creativity. And fortunately, it’s also time for a break... (Next)