Skeptical Faith

Google Image Thomas More, the lawyer who became England’s chancellor under the infamous Henry VIII and was later declared a saint, wrote a book called “Utopia” in 1516. It was about a fictitious “perfect” island society. The Greek word, utopia, literally means “no place,” perhaps indicating that More was being satirical about the possibility of such a place ever existing. Today we have a derived word, “dystopia,” which, according to Wikipedia, also comes from the Greek and literally means “not good place.” The term is now used to describe a seemingly endless parade of modern novels, films and dramas about societies, usually in the future, which are characterized by dehumanization and totalitarianism. Though the name “dystopia” wasn’t used until recently, the genre has been around for some time in modern literature. I remember reading, for instance, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and and George Orwell’s 1984 in my youth. Possibly most responsible for the explosion of inter...

Google Image The next time you swat a fly, you may want to reflect on the fact that you’re cutting shorter an already short lifespan – an average of just four weeks. But it’s not the shortest of average animal lifespans. That distinction goes to the mayfly, whose average life lasts only 24 hours. There are 2,500 species of mayflies, however, and some of them last only a few hours, according to an online nature site. The prize for the longest animal lifespan goes to the famous Galápagos Island tortoise, which lives an average of 150 years . The average lifespan of humans is about half that. According to the World Health Organization, the average life expectancy of a human being was 71.4 years in 2015, the most recent year for which data were available.  A Drop in the Bucket When you compare 71.4 years to the estimated 200,000 years modern humans have existed, it is a drop in the bucket, and even more insignificant when you consider that the ancestors of humans wa...

Pope Francis shows his black eye after colliding with a railing on the popemobile in Colombia Google Image Hurricanes devastate Texas, Georgia and Florida. An earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale causes 90 deaths and widespread damage and homelessness in Mexico. North Korea continues to launch dangerous missiles, bringing the world closer to nuclear devastation. In the midst of a lot of bad news but mostly unobserved by American media, Pope Francis last week paid a long-planned visit to Colombia where millions of people turned out to see him. In a type of visit that has become ritual, the Pope celebrated outdoor masses, held heart-to-heart – sometimes chiding - talks with the clergy, visited orphanages, kissed children and donned native costumes and various headwear. Some people, even believers, may be tempted to be cynical about these visits. They cost the host countries – many of whom are poor – millions. They disrupt traffic and the lives of countless commut...

Google Image Along with Jefferson and Franklin, Thomas Paine was one of the brains behind the American Revolution. Born in England, he arrived in America just in time to join the fight for American freedom. He also was among those early Americans who believed in Deism. Though never referring to it by that name, Paine was heavily influenced by Deists in Europe, especially France, and his beliefs reflect theirs. His ideas have had widespread influence on Americans. According to Wikipedia, Deism, derived from the Latin “Deus” or “God,” is a philosophical position that holds that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator but that creator doesn’t intervene in the world. It also rejects the Bible as a source of religious knowledge. The Clockmaker Among the most widespread metaphors for this God is that of the clockmaker who creates the earth, winding it up like a clock then letting it tick on its own.  ...

On a recent show, TV host Stephen Colbert interviewed comedian Jim Gaffigan. They were talking about parenting and their faith – something that is seldom done on national network television – and Colbert commented on Gaffigan’s description of his parenting of five children. “A father’s job,” said Colbert, “is to be distant, authoritative and never quite pleased. That way, the children can eventually understand God.” He meant it as a joke, but most jokes reflect reality, and I believe this joke pretty well reflects how many people feel about God: If God exists, many people suspect, he/she is distant, judgmental and above all, impossible to understand. Maybe that view results from so many contradictory signals about God. Is he/she loving, as is portrayed sometimes in the Christian Bible and the lives of many saints, or vindictive and exacting, as is often portrayed in the Jewish Bible? Counted the Hairs? Is he/she so intimate with us that he/she has “counted the hairs o...

Google Image It was a summer afternoon, windows and doors were open, and our middle-class neighborhood in St. Joseph, Mo. was filled with sounds and smells. Trucks with screeching brakes delivered ice for people’s “ice boxes.” A fruit-and-vegetable hawker yelled something unintelligible in a nearby street. Crickets vied with cicadas for airtime. The aroma of newly-cut grass mixed with the putrid odor from the packing houses on the south side of town. I was eight or 10 years old, making the year 1949 or 50. The youngest of five children, I lived with my family in a modest two-story house on Sacramento Street. Up that street on that afternoon came an African-American man whose name I never learned. He appeared regularly in our neighborhood behind a push mower he used to cut a neighbor’s lawn somewhere farther up the street. He wore old, dark clothes and worn shoes. Though the neighborhood had long had sidewalks, he always walked in the street, seldom looking right or left, w...

Google Image There’s a certain American archbishop and cardinal, who until his dismissal by Pope Francis in 2014, had an important post in the Vatican. On several occasions, he was photographed in his scarlet robes with a “train” – the long fabric that flows from the cape around the neck, swirling at his feet and extending for several yards. Often in these photos, a cleric of lower rank is shown holding the end of the train, much like servants would have done several centuries ago for a prince. Indeed, cardinals are often referred to as “princes of the church.” When looking at such pictures, or seeing the reality in person, you have to ask yourself, “Is this what Jesus had in mind,” this Jesus who said he came to serve, not to be served; who derided how pagan leaders “lorded it over” each other; who told his disciples that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted?” A Caste Apart? Clericalism – the inclination of some members of...