Of God and man

Easter sometimes provides an excuse for religiously-themed stories to reach the front page, and some of us bloggers are no exception as evidenced by this post. There's a certain reluctance on bringing issues of faith for fear of running people off. It happens the same way in polite conversation, but on certain days it's acceptable.

Today is one of them, although far too often the mainstreamers just toss out a Pope article and say good day. Newsweek has a little different feature, a debate between Atheist Sam Harris and Pastor Rick Warren. Here's a preview:

If life is just random chance, then nothing really does matter and there is no morality—it's survival of the fittest. If survival of the fittest means me killing you to survive, so be it. For years, atheists have said there is no God, but they want to live like God exists. They want to live like their lives have meaning.

Towards the end of the debate Mr. Harris goes on to profess a certain spirituality--at "one with the universe", to which Warren asks whether it's possible to be spiritual but deny that man has a spirit.

Religion has its problems, but the strongest arguments against atheism have always been the tendency of man towards altruism and the knowledge question. If humans evolved from animals, who themselves spontaneously erupted by chance in a meaningless universe, then good and evil don't necessarily exist. Ergo, there should be no compunction towards good deeds whatsoever, especially when nothing is provided in return.

As to knowledge, it's downright presumptuous to presume we speckoids could know enough to make rational determinations about the meaning of just about anything, but human beings seem to be wired to feel love and hate and understand the two. Weird, huh?

Happy Easter to one and all.


MR. JOHNSON 4/8/07

Augusta National. It's Valhalla for all of us who've ever fashioned ourselves as golfers. The big tournament being held there this weekend is over, won by an upstart named Zach Johnson, an unassuming 31 year old from Iowa. Composure is a must down the stretch at any major and he kept his beautifully. When asked, he credited the man responsible for today's holiday.

Contrast that with four-time winner Tiger Woods, who faltered in the crunch amidst the occasional ill-timed TV expletive. Nothing against Tiger and not to sanctify Johnson, but all in all it says a little something about the meaning of the day, 2007 style.