Wednesday, February 11, 2009
By Reg Henry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
From Link
Excerpts:
The existence (or not) of God. Ironically, this discussion is prompted by the 200th birthday tomorrow of Charles Darwin, who, although not here to blow out his candles, still causes unholy heck for a minority of Christians who should have evolved by now into a people more sophisticated but no less faithful.
The cause of faith has also been ill-served by the religious strife that has been the norm throughout history, I love my neighbor more than you do, no you don't, yes I do, bonk, take that you heathen swine. When I consider the hatred of gays that consumes some allegedly religious people in these American latter days, I have a big-hat-no-cattle sort of reaction -- plenty of Christianity, not much Christian charity.
A nonbeliever might easily get the feeling that being in some religions is a bit like belonging to a country club where a member can feel superior to nonmembers without paying too much attention to the bylaws.
I can only assume paradise is a good place. What else can I do? It seems sensible to leave everything up to him, including everything we don't understand -- and that includes the science offered by Darwin and others as it seems to contradict the Bible, although perhaps it doesn't, looking as we do through a glass darkly.
This I think I understand: The logic of the heart is different from the logic of the head; while the existence of God can't be proved scientifically, it can't be disproved either.
Searching souls do find the essence of goodness in myriad places: sometimes in church, sometimes under the star-fretted cathedral of the sky, sometimes in solitude, sometimes in the laughter of a child.
Yes, every week I attempt to lighten the general despair with fun and laughter. But there are no jokes enough for that task if there is no God. He must exist. Consider this: Charles Darwin, explainer of the mechanism of God's creation, is buried in Westminster Abbey, surely a divinely approved irony.
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