[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

This is disingenous and not at all what we are talking about.

How so disingenuous? I am simply pointing out that a strong sense of conviction is a matter of certainty.

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

People who possess a certainty of their belief in God are operating on a deficient mental state from the rest of us. This affects all aspects of their life, how they communicate with others and interact with society in general.

How many of these people do you know? And how are you convinced that their certainty is symptomatic of a deficient mental state?

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

I'm not talking about my mom here who sees beauty and love and god in all of nature's wonderful bounty. I'm talking about zealots who use their self-assured belief in their own religious existential omnipotence to pressure the belief systems and social structure of others.

I agree with your characterization of zealots, but in all of your posts you have fairly consistently implied that all zealots are gnostic theists and atheists, and that all gnostic atheists and theists are zealots. This is categorically not true, at least insofar as this discussion has employed those terms. I think that a real clear distinction needs to be made between degrees of knowledge—people do not arrive at certainty through identical means, and their certainty in God's existence or nonexistence does not produce the same behaviours. Do you really believe that you can measure the strength or quality of ones convictions directly from his or her actions? This presumes that actions are always representative of the same sorts of processes of thought, and I have very serious doubts about that. Were the 9/11 hijackers more certain about the existence of their God than my friends who can "sense" God's presence or absence?

This can be forceful in an example of a religious terrorist or suicide bomber, or it can gentle (but just as destructive) in the example of someone like Jerry Falwell.

Do you honestly believe that Jerry Falwell was mentally deficient?

My mother-in-law speaks to and "hears" God every day. She has participated in exorcisms in which she has communicated with demons. She has "sensed" the presence of angels and experienced their influence in her day-to-day behaviour. And yet, she experiences no problems communicating with others, or in her social interactions. Her beliefs are not exclusively "self-assured", as they are affirmed regularly by dozens of members in her "tribe" who all hold very closely to the same sets of beliefs. She is not in any way compelled to forcefully influence the belief systems and social practices of others. In short, she is not by any conventional measure "mentally deficient"; she does not even conform to your description of what constitutes "mental deficiency. She is unconditionally certain about the existence of God. She very clearly fits the definition of a gnostic theist.

I have no problem with your characterization of zealots, but stop making this one-to-one correlation between zealots and gnostics.