community)! In last year's full program discussing PW as James Franklin mentions above in replying to David, I remember some formulations in the comments regarded the first issue. Perhaps this is the kind of evangelism one might expect from a Catholic mathematician-philosopher! Although as he says "belief is not subject to the control of the will in that way", that thinking Alan mentions of "putting oneself in the way of belief" is, I think, literally true and actually choosing to believe. That is, it's probably psychologically naive to assume that you can't "bet yourself, as it were, into a position of belief". It might not work if you do it with cynical self-skepticism. But just as loving/working altruistically for another can create loving feelings, so does spending time performing rituals, bowing to icons, etc (as religion knows). In revising our Matrix, logic dictates the unconscious mind impute that there is a reason for that behaviour, and so the religious belief is reinforced each time. (Likewise, all actions warp our perspective - especially extreme actions like murderers, who would struggle to reexamine their thinking.) christopher : 08 May 2012 5:47:52pm This is my favorite episode!! I really enjoyed it. I cant believe you started with the chinese room argument... that is such a crazy argument. I want to know who wrote the books with all the answers?!! I am listening from Hong Kong via podcast... so I think about this a lot, and its such a bad argument! Jeremy : Janis