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Some old chestnuts
Feb. 13th, 2009 10:16 amDavid Suchet was on Desert Island Discs this morning. He's obviously a nice man, and his tale of living on a boat for nine years with the love of his life (his wife -- don't you just hate those people who fall in love at first sight and it works for the rest of their lives? I mean, do they have to rub our faces in our own failure to achieve this quite so often?) was touching and inspiring.
But then we got onto that old favourite, faith. Suchet's justification was one of the standard sophistries, that the alternative (there being no God) was too depressing. Logically, this maps to the statement "I have faith in God because it makes me feel better", which is a fair enough reason to have faith in God, but is not any justification for the truth or not of the hypothesis.
But, I can live with that. I understand it. I know many people who believe in God and this is one of the most frequent justifications I come across.
What I find hard to cope with was Suchet's subsequent assertion that this was "a hard path". FFS, it's the easy path. Living with the belief that this is all there is (that famous alternative that Suchet finds "too horrible to contemplate") — that's the "hard path". Does he think that atheists revel in their atheism? Does he think that its "easy" to face the horrors of the world with the knowledge that "that is all there is" with calm equanimity? Trust me, it isn't. Every day, not having a faith to act as a support for you as you witness yet another piece of evidence that humanity (and life) sucks, is an indomitable strain. That, indeed, is the hard path.
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On the "find things to cheer Pete up in the absence of a God, a life, or anything else" front, it does look as if I might have a functioning sink back in the kitchen by the end of the day. Well, here's hoping. It was v nice to have the washing machine back online last night. Apparently in the replumbing it got its MacAddress changed.
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But then we got onto that old favourite, faith. Suchet's justification was one of the standard sophistries, that the alternative (there being no God) was too depressing. Logically, this maps to the statement "I have faith in God because it makes me feel better", which is a fair enough reason to have faith in God, but is not any justification for the truth or not of the hypothesis.
But, I can live with that. I understand it. I know many people who believe in God and this is one of the most frequent justifications I come across.
What I find hard to cope with was Suchet's subsequent assertion that this was "a hard path". FFS, it's the easy path. Living with the belief that this is all there is (that famous alternative that Suchet finds "too horrible to contemplate") — that's the "hard path". Does he think that atheists revel in their atheism? Does he think that its "easy" to face the horrors of the world with the knowledge that "that is all there is" with calm equanimity? Trust me, it isn't. Every day, not having a faith to act as a support for you as you witness yet another piece of evidence that humanity (and life) sucks, is an indomitable strain. That, indeed, is the hard path.
_____________________
On the "find things to cheer Pete up in the absence of a God, a life, or anything else" front, it does look as if I might have a functioning sink back in the kitchen by the end of the day. Well, here's hoping. It was v nice to have the washing machine back online last night. Apparently in the replumbing it got its MacAddress changed.
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