I enjoy diversity. Its a good thing, at least so far as I am concerned. And I have a wealth of friends representing, in the words of the Anglican collect, all manner and conditions of men. Just as a point of clarification, I should probably clear up some things regarding my personal views: 1. I eat a vegan diet through choice, not conviction. Some of the people I most admire and appreciate are restauranteurs whose livelihoods depend upon the carnivore trade, and I support them. Im just getting old and anxious about whats left of my arteries, as well as how my great grandchildren will get their dietary protein in a world with over eleven billion mouths to feed. But if you enjoy a good tenderloin, you arent threatened by me. 2. No. I do not expect Jesus to come back in the clouds and clean up all our messes. As Beatrices friend says in those Geico commercials, Thats not the way this works. Thats not the way any of this works. If you want to believe it, thats fine by me. Just stay the hell out of the way of the grownups who understand that its our responsibility to make the Earth a better place. 3. When I criticize the South, which I do a lot, I am not talking about the forty-nine percent of the population who are fair-minded, forward-thinking and socially responsible. I love my Southern friends and I feel your pain. But I gave up many years ago on the quixotic cause of reforming the truly perverse society of my birthplace, and today I have little patience with the New South, which is just the Old South on cable television. That doesnt mean I have forgotten the mountain laurel, or the irises, or the redbuds, or the way the air smelled in the cool breezes following the late afternoon Summertime thunderstorms. They just cant make up for the racism, the social stratification and the outright fascism which characterizes much of the South today. 4. Yes. I actually do admire what can be reconstructed about the historical Jesus. He accomplished something extraordinary in the Roman world by leading, for as long as it lasted, a fairly substantial non-violent passive resistance social justice movement. No. I am too much of a scientist to parrot the dogma proffered by either my Christian friends or my Atheist friends. Jesus was not the Mediterranean mystery cult deity invented by the followers of St. Paul, nor was he the purely fictional creation of some enterprising Hellenistic philosophers. He was a Galilean Jew of the first century who manifested an extraordinary genius for organizing a resistance to the Roman occupation. I find his contribution to human history to be significant and worthwhile. But as for the soteriological crap that gets bandied around in his name, I personally have no use for it. 5. If you ask what I believe, I will state without equivocation that the scientific method is the greatest invention of human history. The Universe is so much more extraordinary, wonderful and vast than any human mythology. We are lucky to have the intellectual and the social tools (i.e. the scientific method) to apprehend it. 6. It remains a source of amusement for me that some of you Christians insist on calling me an Atheist, while many of you Atheists suspect I am a Christian agent provocateur. I still think the Seven Corporeal Works of Mercy are as good a blueprint for living a useful life as has ever been offered as a discipline. But the idea of an individual tapping into some arcane, exclusive and omniscient energy which created the material Universe is a non-starter for me these days. I dont expect my consciousness to survive my death (although no scientist will ever state a negative positively), nor am I particularly concerned about it. So far as I am concerned, worrying about the afterlife is the ultimate expression of narcissism. If individual consciousnesses survive the death of the body, those consciousnesses will exist in such an alien state that our preconceptions of it are, perforce, stupendously ignorant. So, I guess Im saying that Ill take whatever comes next for what it is, and I wont waste one second of my precious human existence worrying about it. 7. Too many damned fools have squandered the one joyous, extraordinary, reality of their actual existence, however brief, on the mere promise of an improbable life to come. Dont waste the effort on persuading me otherwise. On this point Im a ship that cant be salvaged. 8. The world two centuries hence will be wonderful in ways we currently lack the metaphors to imagine. But it wont happen by magic. Were going to have to work for it. I guess Ive covered the FAQ. Thanks for your patience.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 05:20:21 +0000
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