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Over the summer I've read a bunch of books arguing for and against the existence of God. I've had to cut the series short due to work requirements, but I thought I'd draw some conclusions. This is that last of those posts.

So I think it's fair for the reader to say, "Ok Daniel. What have you learned from all of this?"

I've learned quite a bit, actually.

The Roundup

In math we have concepts we call axioms. An axiom is something that exists without further proof. I think in life we also have things that are pre-cognate -- things that exist before we're ever able to begin reasoning and things that will exist wherever there is intelligent life. These are the building blocks when talking about the role of faith or reason. To me, understanding these three trans-rational concepts is the beginning of sorting this entire thing out.

Apologies if I seem to be saying things that are so simply true as to be pedantic. Sometimes it's restating the obvious in new language that advances a conversation.

God. There is a limit to our understanding. One of the first things we're aware of is that there are things we are not aware of. This is the reason we learn. Traditionally, we've used the term "god" for those things we do not understand. This was as simple concept for the ancients, but somehow we've managed to make something simple very complicated. Somewhere, somehow, someplace there is always a mover, driver, designer, and knowledge source that is greater than all we know about. Whatever epistemological pond we've swam in, there's always been a bigger pond with stranger fish. This has always been true with mankind, and it will always be true. Note that I'm not arguing for the existence of any particular God of any religion. I'm saying that a deep understanding and humility and sense of curious wonder brought on by a natural understanding of our limitations is an inherently important part of being human. The concept of god -- that there exists a huge amount of stuff that I have no knowledge of and cannot begin to describe -- is as true for the caveman as it is for us.

Suffering. Suffering exists because life exists. I know some authors I've read (I'm looking at you, Ehrman) get all wound up about senseless suffering, but to me suffering is an integral part of existence. In fact, I don't think you can exist without suffering in one form or another. We suffer because we don't know, we suffer because of others, we suffer because of chance, we suffer because we've been bad, we suffer to make other people better. We suffer. Existence is, unfortunately, suffering. For those of you just dropping in, this is the cheery part of the blog. Asking why there is suffering is like asking why we have perceptions. In technical terms it's a nonsense question.

Death. The last axiomatic part of life is the absence of it, which we call death. Death haunts us all, and living a full life has to include a continuous acknowledgment of our impending death. For it's only by fully accepting that we're going to die that we are free to live (insert a lot of existentialism here). Whatever we choose to believe, our deep and personal relationship to death determines the fullness and richness of our life as it unfolds.

It seems to me that any sort of belief system is all about how we reconcile these three axioms: God, Death, and Suffering. it also seems to me that modern man is doing a wonderful job of getting as far away from these concepts as he can. When we finally do deal with death, or suffering, or God, it's always as a last resort, and there is always some kind of internal bargaining going on as we desperately try to cling to the notion that none of these things we knew as infants are still really out there for us.

So I believe in God, and I believe that my life will contain suffering -- probably quite a bit of it. At some point I will die -- although my wishes are to be cryogenically frozen and revived at a time when everybody looks like supermodels and we're all able to fly and have interstellar travel. I believe that how I approach and live with my own impending death will be the difference between a full life and an empty shell spent sitting on the couch watching Oprah and eating Doritos.

While I'm aware of how I feel about each of these concepts separately, I haven't worked out for me how they relate to each other, which is a key part of this whole thing. But I do know that it's my job to work out my own answers.

And that's a good start.

4 Comments

And here I was considering unsubscribing from your feed. Thanks so much for the thought-provoking DGE posts.

Thanks Will.

I was talking to a coach for independent consultants last week. He basically told me that the personal stuff was a distraction at best -- focus on writing articles that show how you do consulting!

It's good to see that writing-from-the-heart still means something.

Sorry I couldn't finish the series --I was really looking forward to "The Agnostic Christian" by some pastor from England in the 70s and the powerful "Fear and Trembling" by Kierkegaard, but I ran out of time.

I wish I could have done Dawkins et al, but it seemed like they all had basically the same schtick, and been there, done that. I was looking for new ground to tread.

So you didn't read any Dawkins? Tsk tsk...

At the beginning of the series I talked about why I chose certain authors over others. You have to remember that talking about the existence of God has been going on for many thousands of years. It's not like the arguments have changed that much. So I was able to draw from a rich field. Dawkins, as popular as he may be, quite frankly doesn't rank very highly when looking at all those great men and all those arguments -- remember, the point was to look at how smart people argue about things without data and without clear definitions.

So Dawkins didn't make the cut. Neither did Hitchens, or Dennett. These guys are popularizers of ideas, their job is to sell books, not advance new ground. Most of their readers have already made their mind up and are just looking for reinforcement. Whereas if you with somebody like Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, they start with the foundations of reason and knowledge and build from there. Their material is much more foundational in nature and gets to the heart of the subject.

I'm sure the "bubble gum" atheists will continue to be very popular for a few decades. Looking back over the last four hundred years or so, western civilization has gone through religious fervor periods and periods of agnosticism and atheism. We're currently in a big anti-god period. But once again, it's nothing new. I was looking for the quality of the arguments, and for that you need to go to the less-popular section of the shelf.

Having said all of that, I wish I could re-choose my books. Many of them were about Christianity, not god. So we got off track quite a bit.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on September 2, 2009 1:55 PM.

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