The Best of Faiths

       The Best of Faiths

            And I, unworthy of it

 

             Is there a God, and if so, then why is there suffering? Is God unfair? Or powerless? Or ignorant? God is said to be infinite in compassion, power and wisdom; but this is inconsistent with the reality of suffering. It is also at odds with Kenneth Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, which proves that every social system is somewhere either unfair or indecisive or illogical or perverse.

            I doubt there is a God, but I cannot prove a negative; therefore I am an agnostic. I doubt and I scoff; I agree with all of the faiths, about all of the other faiths.

             This includes atheism, which I consider the most pious of faiths, and I mean that in a good way. Atheism gives God the perfect alibi; not present at the scene of the crime. Atheism is also the purest of faiths, for it demands neither tithe nor rite. Atheism is the most unified of faiths, for there are infinitely many ways for there to be one god, but only one way for there to be none. And atheism is the most mystical of faiths, for it denies the mind the all-too-human comfort of a finite image of the ultimate.

            Atheism is therefore the best of faiths; but I myself am not the best of believers; so a doubter I remain. Maybe God exists and maybe not! But I’ll gladly grant atheism this; if there is a God, then God is almost certainly not Yahweh, nor Christ, nor Allah, nor Krishna, nor Zeus, nor Odin, nor Quetzalcoatl, nor Yu-Huang, nor Horus, nor Marduk, nor any other human fiction.