Dear Ed,
You may be interested in the following post which I uploaded to the web just minutes ago.
My Letter To Pacifist Friend (And Plowshares Activist Patrick O'Neill), Concerning Perfectionism And The Tendency For "The Perfect" To Be "Enemy Of The Good"
For your "Christian" "conservative" friends, here's a meme that may be useful:
The essence of our conundrum is that "faith is faith."
By definition, faith is not "knowledge."
In recent decades, "Christian" "conservatives" (who are neither) have come to confuse these two phenomena.
All of us can be mistaken about ANY issue, for there is no absolutely certain proof about any fundamental or ultimate matter, no matter how much we "feel" like God's "Chosen Ones" -- no matter how convinced we are that God has shone his Full Light directly on us.
Pursuit of truth -- and it is an endless pursuit -- requires a modicum of doubt... some recognition that we might be wrong.
"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."
Ironically, whenever we proclaim "absolute Truth," our epistemology is certainly wrong, even if we happen to stumble on an ultimate truth... which, in any event, cannot be proven.
Pride is the cardinal sin.
And acknowledgement of uncertainty is the only antidote to this pride - this arrogance - this hubris --- the pride of Satan himself.
Consider.
I happen to believe - with all my heart - that "God is Love."
But I have no way to prove this premise.
In fact, the postulate that "God is Love" -- like all fundamental religious and philosophical premises -- cannot be proven.
And, finally...
Our inability to prove the truth of any "Ultimate Matter" is not cause for disappointment, anxiety or despair.
Rather, our inability to prove "Ultimate Truth" is cause for celebration.
Why?
Because our inability to puff ourselves up with proclamatory pontifications humbles us.
And by humbling us, we become fully human.
And when we become fully human, we find ourselves - finally - in the only position from which we can genuinely revere The Magnum Mysterium, whose unfathomable majesty depends on The Mystery's ultimate inscrutability.
https://imgflip.com/i/7fudpd
Pax et amor
Alan 
PS I should add that in our lives, we are, or course, able (and welcome) to believe and to act as if our beliefs are founded on bedrock. But "as if" is a categorically different frame of mind from Absolute Certainty.
"How Americans Ended Up In 2 Totally Divided Camps, Both Convinced They're Absolutely Right"
https://i.imgflip.com/7glcal.jpg
The Normalization Of Cruelty During Donald Trump's Administration: A Compendium
On Fri, Mar 31, 2023 at 11:46 AM Ed Myer wrote:
Hola Compa —Two Republicans Kicked Off County Election Board in North Carolina for Failing to Certify Results
By Doug Bock Clark 3/31/23
What happened to the officials stands in sharp contrast to elsewhere in the U.S., where those who voted against certification faced few consequences.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.
Link: https://apple.news/
Ae7zqmlm2T9-2Z0lDukWc3A Sent from my iPhone
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