Loved Wolf's article on the New Atheism! It was thoughtful and he obviously did his home-and-foot work on both sides of the issue! I particularly liked the disclosure... bright, a noun. The Brights say there is no light at the end of the tunnel (is that an oxymoron?). The Brights say they have out-thought God (a double oxy?). I was reading the article at 36,000 feet. As I finished I looked out the window at the geometrically knit hard deck, white light above, rain dropping beneath. I marveled - not at the natural elements of shedding clouds and rain - but at the design of the whole recycling system. It's just so perfect. It's so superior to all human thought and innovation brought together from all millennia in one moment of time!
Atheism, for all it's intellectual claims, has exactly the same basis of faith for it's adherents as the best of world religions. It is a system of belief based on the palpable results of something unseen. An atheist says, "If you're there God, show yourself!" Since sovereigns don't jump - the edict issues, "There is no God!" An atheist proudly challenges, "If there's a God let Him strike me dead with a lightning bolt!" And because largess is measured in smallness absorbed - the choir sings, "There is no God!" Not seeing God move leads to a system of belief as full of conviction and self-doubt as any Christian-Judeo follower.
Though hope springs eternal from childhood, with good reason, it has to be superseded by those "moments of reality" we atheists sell with such vigor. I apologize to my single cell free thinking brothers - but like many others I have evolved, by intelligent design, into a multi-cell "heretic" believer who loves a good read at 36,000 feet!
Cere MuscarellaAngleton, Texas
