If only our A&S course were a few weeks longer, we could give this timely "recommended" novel the attention it deserves. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Goldstein -- excerpted on edge.org.*
The Argument from the Abundance of Arguments may be the most psychologically important of the thirty-six. Few people rest their belief in God on a single, decisive logical argument. Instead, people are swept away by the sheer number of reasons that make God's existence seem plausible — holding out an explanation as to why the universe went to the bother of existing, and why it is this particular universe, with its sublime improbabilities, including us humans; and, even more particularly, explaining the existence of each one of us who know ourselves as a unique conscious individual, who makes free and moral choices that grant meaning and purpose to our lives; and, even more personally, giving hope that desperate prayers may not go unheard and unanswered, and that the terrors of death can be subdued in immortality. Religions, too, do not justify themselves with a single logical argument, but rather set themselves up to minister to all of these needs and provide a space in people's lives where large questions that escape answers all come together and co-mingle, a co-mingling that, in itself, can give the illusion that they are being answered.
*Speaking of large co-mingled questions and arguments, check out edge.org's World Question Center question for 2010, “How is the internet changing the way you think?,” and dozens of thoughtful replies. And last year's question will figure prominently in our "Future of Life" course next Fall: "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"
We'll try to create more than the illusion of an answer. But, all is probably vanity. So we should all stop worrying and enjoy our lives. Right?
The Argument from the Abundance of Arguments may be the most psychologically important of the thirty-six. Few people rest their belief in God on a single, decisive logical argument. Instead, people are swept away by the sheer number of reasons that make God's existence seem plausible — holding out an explanation as to why the universe went to the bother of existing, and why it is this particular universe, with its sublime improbabilities, including us humans; and, even more particularly, explaining the existence of each one of us who know ourselves as a unique conscious individual, who makes free and moral choices that grant meaning and purpose to our lives; and, even more personally, giving hope that desperate prayers may not go unheard and unanswered, and that the terrors of death can be subdued in immortality. Religions, too, do not justify themselves with a single logical argument, but rather set themselves up to minister to all of these needs and provide a space in people's lives where large questions that escape answers all come together and co-mingle, a co-mingling that, in itself, can give the illusion that they are being answered.
*Speaking of large co-mingled questions and arguments, check out edge.org's World Question Center question for 2010, “How is the internet changing the way you think?,” and dozens of thoughtful replies. And last year's question will figure prominently in our "Future of Life" course next Fall: "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"
We'll try to create more than the illusion of an answer. But, all is probably vanity. So we should all stop worrying and enjoy our lives. Right?
Charles Darwin (
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