Uh oh

It just occured to me that *people* are going to expect us to baptize our kid at some point. Huh. That oughtta be interesting considering I don't do religion except out of respect for others' beliefs. I guess I may as well get the first round or two out of the way right now.

On god

Does God exist? Who knows? I defy anyone to logically prove his/her/its existence or non-existence. The universe is huge and complex and beautiful. Infinite? Who knows?

I know it's pretty fabulous to think about all the engineering and adaptation and evolution that goes into a single blade of grass. Xylem and phylem and sucrose and chloryphyll and the Kreb's cycle and mitosis and solar radiation at just the right wattage and O2 respiration. It's amazing. And I have a whole lawn of the stuff. And I can walk to the edges of more than a million acres of national forest that is several orders of magnitude more incredible. And any one of my friends eclipse the beauty and majesty of the forest (well, most of them, at any rate ;-)). And there are six-and-a-half *billion* people — all unique — out there.

Is it all just a great machine that some consciousness built for entertainment or companionship or because it had left-over spare parts from other projects? Or is it all just amazing and happy (mostly) and beautiful conincidence? I dunno; do you?

Finally, what does it matter if I believe in god or not? Let's just suppose for a moment that we each have an immortal soul, and that this is our one shot at life, that we won't be reincarnated. If god is kind and loving (a new testament god) and we've been reasonably good people, we'll most likely end up in the great white condo in the sky. If god is vengeful and just (a cranky, old testament god), then we're all fucked no matter what we do.

Let's face it, if I ever have a vision of a flaming bush in the desert telling me I need to choose between my kid and my god, then I'll hope god's been practicing his/her/its taijutsu because I'll be opening my can of Holy Whoop-Ass (tm). Yeah, and after the dust settles, I'll check the ingrediants of those brownies, then file a complaint with the EPA about W. selling the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest to loggers.

On religion

Let me just start by saying I've never done particularly well with authority. If someone says, "AJ, you can't..." my immediate response, even before they've put a name to the impossible, is, "Oh yeah, you son-of-a-bitch? Watch me." So you can imagine how religion and I mesh.

On the pro side, I was really fortunate to grow up mostly in a UCC church where the pastor saw me as an individual person with my own beliefs and values, and who helped me explore those some. He was and is a guide and a mentor rather than some dude who cloaked himself in the garmets of authority. My Dad seems rather aghast at my position on religion and keeps threatening to get the pastor, himself, and me together with some wine on a beach on the edge of The Lake and hash things out. I keep waiting for the invitation.

On the con side,

• I also spent some time as a young person in a methodist church where apparently the ministers were out to screw the congregation, both literally and figuratively.
• I know people who take the Bible literally — Come on, people, it's a book, just like "Clifford's Big Adventure" except with more violence, sex, and murder.
• I see people throw away logic and empirical (ie. you can touch and see it because it's right in front of you) evidence because they "believe," they "have faith" that the world has to work in some other way.

If other folks want to have faith in something, fine. I hope it makes them feel better in their times of need. I rely on my friends to always be there for me. For the natural world to always be there. For music to (hopefully, if I take better care of my ears) always be there. And the universe, of course, will always be there for me. Until it isn't.

On baptisim

I figure that unless Ashland is invaded by motorcycle-riding zombies, and holy water is proven to repel them, I'll hold off on the baptism until the kid is old enough to think about the world and his or her place in it, and make his or her own decision. Of course, I need to talk to The Wife about all this and see what she thinks. That is, after all, the essence of our relationship; communication and partnership.

And pasta with zesty garlic bread.