I should have really known better than to marry an agnostic. It’s not that I am into organized religion, but I certainly believe in a higher power more now than at any time in my life.
I used to be Catholic, or should I say, Roman Catholic. Though I have drifted away from this faith (divorce does that to a guy), I have not found another religion that fits me well. I really liked the mysticism of the Catholic mass. And I’m talking pre Vatican II when they changed everything around to make it a bit more user-friendly.
I remember as a kid the priest speaking in Latin. He would pull the chalice from a gold gilded container about the size of a breadbox that had a curtain on it. I was always amazed that God seemed to know how many parishioners were going to receive communion that day because the priest always got the last one after everyone else had gotten their body of Christ. There never appeared to be any extras.
I learned later, that this wasn’t so. I had watched Father Mayovsky pull the wafers out of a large black plastic bag and pour the body of Christ from a jug of Gallo.
This doesn’t really bother me, mind you. I understand the whole conversion into the body and blood of Christ thing. I just used to think it was more magical.
But this isn’t really about religion. It’s more about God. You see, I once struggled with my own faith, at one point, questioning his existence. Part of this crisis was the fact that, well, evolution is indisputable in our world. It exists. We have seen proof of evolution in our own time, even if it’s only those moths who were white before the industrial revolution and are now a shade of gray to match the now polluted bark of the trees they rest on.
Mr. Hickman taught me that in 8th grade science class. He was a great teacher. He was also a very religious man. He put our midterm off for a week once because a student had asked if we had descended from monkeys. He immediately launched off on what I can only describe as a cross between a lecture and a sermon about how only God created man.
I never really bought into that argument. I think God is a little more laissez faire in his management of the earth and the heavens. As we’ve since found out, there are other planets and inevitably other life forms. I think it would be just too much of a workload to expect God to dabble in every single aspect of the universe, especially when he has to listen to so many prayers at the same time.
I don’t go this route when arguing about it with agnostics or atheists, though. First, I don’t really care if they don’t believe. I’m not going to try to convince them otherwise. But equally, I’m going to defend my right to believe.
First, I think it’s the only way to go. I will first tell them that the logic is fairly simple: If there is a God and you believe, your bases are covered. If there is no God, no harm and no foul.
But then, I can’t resist using a little physics on them. I learned in college the law of conservation of energy. Basically, it’s the one that states that energy can neither be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. Everything that is here in the universe is here from when it was formed.
Of course, my friends will spout off about quantum mechanics, the existence of alternate universes, the fact that ours was formed from a wave from another universe, etc., etc., etc.
And I always return to one simple thing. Something had to be created. It doesn’t matter how far back you go, something can’t continually come from something else. Even if you go back to the alternate universes, etc., etc., there had to be, even at the most basic level of origination, a single speck of cosmic dust.
Therein lies my basis of belief. It doesn’t matter if we evolved from monkeys, or even that God really created the heavens and the earth in a seven-day work week. Some little speck had to be put there to start the whole chain of events off because matter can’t be created out of nowhere, using a basic law of physics.
And who put it there? For me, it can only be a supreme entity, whether you want to call him Bhagwaan (Hindu), Yahweh, God, Allah, Shiva, Jehovah, Elohim, or Big Guy (my term).
At some point, you can’t keep explaining the origins of the universe with science alone. Because its own law betrays its omnipotent desire to explain anything and everything. You can try to justify it any way you like through science, but I’ve already been that route. My own Speck Theory works just fine for me.
So there you go, Religion 101 with Robb — The Speck Theory.
Now, I haven’t cleared this with the Big Guy. I talked to him last night as I nearly always do, thanking him for a great day and asking for help now and then with little things. When I don’t, things seem to go awry in my life. So I try to make it a regular habit.
I know he’s awfully busy these days. So I didn’t want to bother him to ask about my interpretation of how the whole Genesis thing really played out. There’s too much tragedy and sorrow going on right now on the earth and I’m sure he’s up to his ears with the people in Japan right now.
Somehow, my little issues don’t seem so big at the moment. And I’m sure he’ll get around to me when he can. I certainly have faith that he will.
Out here on the Treasure Coast, working on the Sabbath (I know, I know),
– Robb