Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Of Mystery And Meaninglessness

Mark Shea, in quoting the great G. K. Chesterton, has made a wonderfully cogent and rational posit on the over-simplicity of atheism. Mark ends with this:

"You can be a Christian and have numerous questions and doubts and mysteries. That's why Scripture is packed with "How long, O Lord?" and "Eli, Eli lama sabachthani?" and "Why do the wicked prosper?". Scripture is capacious enough to have a book of Job, and all sort of anomalous features which stick out (like the ghost of Samuel or the parable of the Unjust Steward). It lives in a large and mysterious universe that is open to the possibility [that] we don't understand everything.

But the gleaming machine of Rationalism cannot afford doubts or mystery. It claims, by a supremely funny act of vaulting pride, to have figured the universe out and to know for absolute certain What is Going On. And the cocky swagger of its representatives only adds to the hilarity--and the pathos--of it."


Well stated, Mark... well stated!

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