Reflections of a stormy petrel

I do not think you have rambled off the point, but I would say that once one adopts a central premise as true, or at least as the closest to truth that you can get, that central premise becomes itself a positive fact and force. The notion itself of the world of matter as the sole existing world has a whole series of consequences that cannot be dodged. Of course the reasons to reach that conclusion likewise remain active forces; one cannot undo one's past. I well remember one Greek friend of my sister's who informed me in one and the same breath that he was an atheist and that we Catholics, because of the Filioque clause, were nevertheless heretics! IN the same way that an Italian Catholic is not like an Irish Catholic and an Irish Catholic is not like an English Catholic from an old Recusant family, and yet they have so many essential points in common that it is quite natural and obvious to talk of a Catholic point of view.

BTW, a small request. If you happen to have a large space at the end of your comment, would you mind clearing it? It looks ugly like this.