Letters to the Editor
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two cents
I have enjoyed this thread despite being dismayed at the occasional invective that has been thrown about. Now that a more civil tone has been reached I’ll add my two cents to the mix.
It seems to me, this is opinion that any discussion of the word “God” is nearly impossible, particularly in the United States, the culture, whether liberal or conservative is based on Puritan values brought to these shores over the span of several centuries. Many of our ancestors came to this country to escape religious persecution and to establish their own communities, ironically at times persecuting others. So pervasive is this ‘christian ethos’ that, again this is my opinion, it is as invisible as the telegraph poles that permeate our countryside. There but not noticed.
Our collective idea or conception of “God” almost always falls back into the, cue Sistine Chapel Slide, of Michelangelo’s vision of God. A ‘man’ with flowing beard creating the world and giving Adam life.
I personally think that to have any valuable conversation about religion or spirituality must almost without doubt banish the use of the word “God” as it is too loaded with cultural baggage to discuss rationally.
I guess for lack of a better word I would have to be labeled an agnostic. I live in a part of Brooklyn where you cannot throw a stone and not hit a church. Some of my closest friends are hardcore Christians, albeit African American or Caribbean, there is a difference on a social level in my experience. However I do bristle at the ‘literalness’ of which they take the bible.
I myself, having studied hardcore science in college and still maintain an active interest in it despite changing career paths, love the theory of evolution, string theory, quantum mechanics, etc but this rational discovery of the mystery of the ‘known’ universe does in no way diminish the poetry of life.
In short, whether there is a god or not does not matter to me. I can take an extremely rational position and at the end of the day (and the beginning of everyday actually) marvel that there is this thing called life. That I can eat, breathe, the sky is blue, my son is a joy, that coffee tastes delicious and that one day it will all be dust. To waste a single moment not being in this life, aware of its fragility and for lack of a better word ‘sacredness’ well is, following the tone. ‘sinful.’