Mortimer Adler, "How to Think about God." Note: nothing in the basic defini-
tion about the state of the universe--perfect or otherwise.
It's a choice whether or not to have a faith in a possibility. You can only
milk so much prove is or isn't from it with the quality of the universe or any-
thing else. Those pushing too hard in either direction, intending to distinguish
themselves from those of the other extreme, ironically remind me of each other.
It's a choice whether or not to have a faith and nobody told them. It can be
a honey of a thing kept in perspective and done up right, but I don't want
either of them writing the song for me.
In this case, perfect or desolate universe. You either get someone who seems
like Ned Flanders who just stepped out of a Mary Poppins movie or "Life is a
swirling sucking eddy of death and despair." The Harris quote seems meant like
the latter to pad an atheist case:
"The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there
is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind,
pitiless indifference."
Does that universe include people and what good he can find in getting a
chance at life and love in it? He's got to lay off the Franz Kafka books for a
while. I like him sometimes--I hope he's feeling better....
