Letters to the Editor
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What is god?
Hidden in this debate is the fact that god means so many different things to different people who say they believe in god. Like a mathmatical variable, you can say god=just-about-anything (hope, mystery, the unknown, that-which-is-better-than-ourselves, etc.). Once you're beyond god=old-man-with-beard-in-sky, you're in the relm of the empy signifier that you can fill with whatever you want. For example, if you believe that god=the mystery of the universe, when it is shown that there is some mystery in the universe, that is your proof of god. Logically, it's not much more than saying, "let god=tacos; there are tacos, therefore god exists." That being said, I do understand the position that rationality alone cannot be our sole guide through life. From "should I have two cups of coffee or one?" to "should I leave my partner?" we operate from a deficit of sound data with which to make decisions. We are often having to supplement data-based decision-making with something else, something less rational and more intuitive. I think the problem we have as a culture is a lack of agreement on what questions can be answered rationally based on data, and which can't. It was news in the paper this morning that an increasing number of Americans don't believe in evolution. That's an example of a question for which we DO have enough data to make a rational decision (YES, virginia, there is evolution). On the other hand, I might not have any good data that I should be good to my children, but I have decided to be. I have filled a gap in data with an intuitive belief in goodness. I choose not to call that god, but maybe someone else would.