Day 212 – Pretty Well Done

Hours of Daylight – 10:22
Ok, for the upteenth time, i think i’m done. Yeah, get the fork out again. This time the topic is god. No i won’t capitalize that.

Honestly, what is with people who feel they must have some kind of a personal relationship with what they refer to as "their creator." No, maybe that’s not the right tack. Let’s first focus on the recent row over "intelligent design." Certainly I applaud when i hear the University of Idaho deciding to stand by their original decision that "only science will be taught in science classes."  But here’s the deal, what is it about the writing of Charles Darwin that explicitly denies the possibility of a force driving evolution? Damnit people is it that hard to realize that evolution, along with the countless processes of physics and chemistry and cosmology, may be THE HAND of GOD in ACTION??? But this brings us back to my first statement; that people need to feel a personal relationship with god. Their answer to my question about evolution and the hand of god is, "that’s not my god." Ooooh, i see, you know more of god than others. You have a special relationship with god. Ah.

Here it is: i do not believe the standard definition of god as expressed in our judeo-christian writings and culture. However, that being said, i believe in one of the many Jesuit goals "to seek god in all things." What does that mean? I interpret that simple sentence as a directive to look beyond what’s in front of your face; to try and take in the bigger picture. It is a process not a destination, so you can see why i find anybody who says they’ve found "the way" to do anything unworthy of trust. And you can see why i’m so frustrated with the evangelical right wing fringe who claim to know the way of damn near everything.

My father was a raging atheist. My mother was a lapsed Irish Catholic. Although in the Irish Catholic tradition "lapsed" could mean so many things. My father assented to my being baptized, his rationalization being i might wish to attend Notre Dame some day. But he drew the line there. My mother wanted me to go to a catholic school. That was not about to happen in my father’s house. The end result being i grew up with no form of indoctrination whatsoever. My father survived polio whilst growing up on a farm in Vermont. His indoctrination took the form of "ok, you lived, now don’t work, don’t eat." He was a pretty tough teacher in several instances. But aside from being an excellent driving instructor the one other thing he instilled in me, was an abiding sense that good people always acted with a greater sense of responsibility. He didn’t act this way with the tacit expectation of some kind of reward once he died. He acted this way, and quietly expected me to act in a similar way, because that was the right thing to do. He never, not ever, claimed to have the way to do anything. He did, however, claim to know a way to do many things. In a classic "teacher/student" relationship he offered his solutions and quietly, perhaps too quietly, encouraged me to begin there, then do better.

But he harbored a dark side that haunts me to this day. He felt the world was simply going to hell. Once i asked him what he thought the world would be like when i was his age. He was old as most of the grandfathers of kids i knew in school and he said dismissively, "it will be a mess." This from a man who survived The Depression, stateside duty (due to his post-polio syndrome) during WWII, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, and two disasterous marriages. I wonder if he felt, even then, the ascendance of the small minded evangelicals who all claim to know the way and who wield a terrible amount of power.