One Stray Word

I find it interesting that out of everything I produce for this website, it’s this column that gets the biggest response. And usually it’s a negative response. But Dave, who’s own site’s at http://sophronismos.wordpress.com/ , had some kind words for me on last week’s column, Reader Mail. Thanks, Dave. It was nice to see one comment that wasn’t attacking me. It brightened my day, as they say.

Today’s column is written in response to another comment that was left on last week’s Reader Mail. So, I suppose this could have been called Reader Mail Pt 2, but that’s boring.

Anon writes:

“I consider myself somewhere between an Atheist and an Agnostic, because Atheism is nearly as great a leap of faith as are other religions. And, to some extent, I do feel lost and alone. I gaze upwards, at the starry sky, and I realize that my brain is not equipped to comprehend infinity. I realize that human beings, like all things that follow the laws of nature, are inherently limited. I search for something greater, but I cannot find anything with a claim of being greater that does not run up against the laws of physics without challenging them in a manner identical to the claims put forth by Science. And so I continue to feel that gnawing at my mind, the desire to comprehend the incomprehensible, but I realize that to accept any answer that does not satisfy my intellect is to concede my quest for understanding to the merely convenient. So I sometimes speak to religous figures, and I challenge them to explain why their claims are any better than none at all, and they usually resort to faith, despite my challenge being based in reason. Each of them has failed, and I have grown increasingly firm in my belief that there is no answer that is better than any other, although there are many that are worse. I only have faith that faith is not the answer, for to claim rightness from faith is, in essence, to claim that each individual is the center of his or her own universe.”