Would any other theist like to have a go?
There must be someone else out there of better calibre than Wendy.. How about Toby? (
@tldr)
You've been getting something of a drubbing here. Are you insensible to it? It's extraordinary to observe.
So, you'd like me to comment. Is this because you want to open out the debate or because you want attention? In either case, let's try this line of argument - along a mathematical theme.
Now, most of us are not able to do advanced mathematics - some certain people, quite a small proportion of us, are able to engage in this sort of figuring. They, effectively, have the aptitude for it while most don't. We can be schooled up to a point but are not be able to "enter" its "stream".
Take for example the following video:
Sort of makes sense to me, but not much. There's a quote from someone sometime that goes 'Just because I cannot read Italian, does this mean that I can say that an Italian book is an empty one." This means that just because we are not able to read in a different language, does not mean that the book has no content - it is solipsistic and vain to dismiss it.
Now, advanced mathematics has a reality although you cannot measure it with scientific instruments - you can only look for the evidence of its effects and deduce from those effects that it had predictive capacity. If an engineer does not respect the rules of mathematics when designing a bridge, that bridge will be liable to catastrophic collapse especially if constructed laxly.
Many extraordinary things have been made possible with the revelations of maths that we often take for granted. For example, do you know how the different parts of a microwave work together in order to heat your dinner? Probably not much of an understanding but yet the dinner gets warm.
The same with a desalination plant, do you understand the materials science that goes on to create the membrane that can remove the salt from cubic metres of water a day. Likewise, probably not much and if it was explained to you it would all be a bit confusing.
Without different branches of mathematics being applied in the engineering of these two items they would not have been possible.
The same with the perception of the Divine. It is opaque to most of us. That does not mean it does not have an action in the world.
Even the most lofty and self assured acolytes of scientism have to confront themselves with the proposition that the reason they are so certain of the sovereignty of materialism is because they
lack the aptitude to perceive and enter the stream of the Divine. With the erosion of Christian culture and catechesis - even the most rudimentary appreciation is tenuous at best in a civilisation running low on its cultural capital.
The best they can do is to see what happens when there is a absence of an adherence to Its Laws. And so, the beginning of an argument with them cannot be based on personal revelation, but on the effects in the world. This is similar to how we would argue with someone (without an aptitude or learned appreciation for mathematics) that mathematics exists.
There would be no point in trotting out formulae and corollaries - this would be merely considered gobbledygook - one would be compelled to demonstrate that, absent the inclusion of advanced mathematics, higher forms of organisation and functionality
would not be possible. Entropy would drag a system down to its lowest common denominator without the benefits of routines to right it.
You are fond of decrying the clownworld direction of modern culture. It's obvious that you can see that all is not well. Is it pride that forbids your considering the possibility that it is the desecration of the Divine that has allowed these tendrils of chaos to gain a choke hold?