Does God Exist?

Gary Gutting has a great commentary that was posted in the New York Times the other day titled “Does it Matter Whether God Exists?”

Growing up in the South, you are surrounded on every level by organized religion, which usually includes several brands of the evangelical type, as well as the more sedate Catholic and Presbyterian brands.

As a kid, my mother hauled us from one church to another, and at various times I think we attended nearly everything available in the area except perhaps a Haitian Voodoo or Cuban Santeria ceremony. Had those been available, I’m sure she would have at least peeked into the door to see what it was all about.

We were also quite familar with the First Baptist Church in town. Not because we attended, we didn’t; but because my grandmother ran the nursery there for years and years, and the local boy scouts met in various rooms beneath the church.

My elder brother, in his late 30’s decided he wanted to be a preacher. Well, that’s probably not the way he would describe it.

If you aren’t familiar with a lot of the more evangelical practices of christianity, you may not be aware that God Wants to Talk To You.  In some of the more radical and rural churches, this may involve you suddenly learning another language that no one else can understand, and as you speak it loudly and with a great deal of passion while standing on your pew, others around you are quite convinced they are witnessing a miracle. Other brands of evangelical churches aren’t quite so vivid in the way God Speaks To Them, but instead it is a more private thing, unwitnessed by anyone. My brother was called by God to preach. Quietly.

My point is to not make fun of people who believe in God, or they way they believe. It’s to point out that as a kid, I was steeped in 31-flavors of God, and came out of it a skeptic. I don’t disbelieve – have never claimed to be an atheist, but I’m more of a pragmatic kind of person, and I’d like to see some proof.

By the way, you can also extrapolate that because I’m a skeptic about God, I’m also somewhat aporetic about Satan.

In Mr. Guttings commentary, he mentioned the philosopher John Gray who has been pointing out that in many religions of the world, belief in God is of little importance. Instead, the practice, or the rituals of the religion are what give people true comfort.

I particuarly like that John Gray goes on to point out that it’s only the religious fundamentalists and ignorant rationalists who think that the myths that most established religions live by are literal truths.

I don’t know how I’ve gone my entire life without finding and reading John Gray. This is probably as close to the way I feel as anything, and the first time I’ve seen it in words.

I actually don’t mind going to church most of the time. I like the friends you make, I like the social interactions, I enjoy most of the soothing rituals that are practiced in a church. I’m just not so thrilled about it all revolving around what appears so far to me to be someones imaginary friend.

I end up not going to church, unless dragged out by the ears by a well meaning Aunty, because despite all the nice things that happen there, someone brings along that imaginary friend and insists we pay him attention.

There are just so many things wrong with what is supposed to be our proof that God exists. Most of it devolves down into some version of “because I said so”, and as any 8 year old can tell you, that is certainly no proof that something is a truth, it’s merely evidence that someone bigger than you is tired of arguing.

I’ve long thought the Bible was fiction.  Dr. Joel Hoffman actually brings out some pretty good points on how there really is no great translation of what we think of the Bible.  The fact that the Bible actually doesn’t say what we think it says in a lot of important places is enough to give any intelligent person pause.

Sure, it has some great stories, some really scary stories, and is downright dirty in a spot or three, but so are a lot of books, but, with  few exceptions like Heinleins “Stranger in a Strange Land” or “The Book of Mormon”, you don’t see anyone building religions up around them.

It is said that one of the things that seperates human beings from cows is that we humans can contemplate our own death and not go insane. Again, since we have not learned to speak cow very well, I’m not so sure that should be raised as an absolute platitude. Perhaps Betsy is well aware that she is not immortal, and chewing her cud peacefully while at pasture is her way of dealing with it.

A lot of people who believe in God, and more especially the evangelicals in the crowd would tell you that death is but a gateway and that some paradise awaits them. This belief is carried across a number of religions. I  think one of the reasons fundamentalist islamists have no problem finding young men to blow themselves up in crowded markets is the promise of a palace filled with young virgins.

It would seem to me that if there were such a being as God, that he wouldn’t be happy to just sit back for a few thousand years and watch us making such a mess out whatever he has created. I know if I were God, I’d be somewhat annoyed at a lot of things we humans have done, and would have stepped in at least once or twice and called a timeout, or something.

So, like a lot of people I know, the intellectual side of my brain says that God is a myth, likely created long long ago by some tired neanderthal parent who grew weary of a childs incessant string of questions that all began with the word Why?.

The emotional side of my brain occasionally wants me to at least pretend, just in case there is some spark of truth to the whole thing.

Usually my intellectual side wins out.