To those who are not big on religion, I ask for your patience. I just couldn't fit my remarks in the space provided under "comments."

Editor's notes: a young critic made the following claim to which I felt the need to address. My remarks do not fit into the space provided in the "comments" section of this blog, where these comments should be placed. This is a political blog and I intend to stay on course, but, in this case, I am making an exception to the rule.

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You wrote: “The difference between faith in science and faith in "God" is that science has a result, a conclusion. Something useful, WITH SUBSTANCE! actually comes from putting faith in science. What do you get out of faith in "God"? A sense of security in a scary world full of chaos? An entitlement to eternal life? Fairy tales? . . .”

As an after thought, I really must address this comment. Here is what I have to say about your observation:

I just saw an ad encouraging users to sue because of the ill effects of Lipitor. Science gave us Lipitor and the FDA gave us protections and assurance in their approval of that drug . . . . . and not that drug only but 100’s of drugs, over the years.

Science gives us our daily weather report. Assurance and consistency? Ha! You tell me!!!!
Continue reading here . .  . 

Ten years ago, more than two eggs per day was a death sentence. Today? 5 or 6 will be just fine.

There is no consistency in the geo-evidence presented for evolution. Fossilized remains, for example, dated for a certain geo-age are often found in strata that are millions of years too early or too late. The very rules for evolving species from one state to another are as misguided as a woman in a clothing store. Science has no consistent answer for the beginnings of times. There are dozens of variations to the “big bang” theory. Clearly, no one knows "for sure." Science cannot explain how particulate motion came to be or where matter, in its simplest form, came from. Consequently, science is stuck with the “eternity” of motion and matter while laughing at non-believers who chose to accept the eternity of God.

With our first returns from the moon, we were told, “these finds (moon rocks) have changed some of the most basic considerations we have had for the beginnings of the universe” which meant, of course, all that crap we learned in college was suspect.

Science told us that in the summer following Katrina (2005) , there would be 17 major hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. There were none for three years.

Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, came after 274 failed efforts. While the cloning of Dolly was extraordinary, I do not forget the hundreds of failed scientific conclusions that did not work in real life, but looked great on paper.

Science gave us aluminum wiring and the government gave us its approval. Turns out that aluminum wiring was an absolute disaster.

Heck, Paul. talk about killing people. Science gave us the atomic and hydrogen bombs and the guns we shoot and the land mines we plant !!!!!

Science gives us the basis for environmental law, yet those laws never seem to get the job done and are constantly being revised. Those twisty light bulbs are full of mercury. Ethanol is more a pollutant than fossil fuels and cost five times the energy it “saves.” The ban on DDT has killed 40 million in Africa.

With all of the above, you will pardon my sinicism as a relates to science.

On the other hand, while I cannot make a thoroughly consistent case for God, the created will always fail to confirm or explain its creator, your claims about my world are patently false. Paul, two of my boys, one a lawyer and one a doctor, both went through school as borderline atheists. One was taught the law of situation ethics and the other was taught a godless evolution. Your arguments were their arguments. Today? Each expresses a belief in God that allows for their individuality in thought and emotional preference. What made the difference in their lives?

My faith, my consistency. In the midst of all my hypocrisy ( I am a thorough going dialectic !!!), my boys saw a consistency they came to believe was desirable. It is not God who needs to be consistent. It is his believers.

My world of faith, me being from a different generation and era (I am 66 years old), was borne of a cookie cutter type expression, a fundamentalism that does not seem to work in this so-called post modern world. Back in the day, we all had to speak and think the same things. I never fit in that world. I have been kicked out of more churches than you have driven by. I was not allowed to graduate from seminary. I have enough college credit to have earned a PhD in biblical studies, but, instead, I am qualified as a building contractor . . . . . . . a change of plans forced on me by believers in God. Yet, I understand their “stilted” faith and accept it as evidence for the same God I serve.

You tell me what to say to a young woman full of sores because of a meth addiction. What does an atheist say to her? My words often give the opportunity to change “her” life and if change is no longer possible, to give her assurance as she faces the physical results of her addiction.

What does an athiest say to a family having lost loved ones in a shooting or a traffic accident?

Does an atheist even care about the young pastor who just got the crap kicked out of him by the power structure in his congregation or the head master of his seminary (my story is not unique to me)?

Civilizations are all rooted in a certain faith in God. To me, that is an unadulterated fact.

Seriously, why is chaos not the alternative to “God,” and, why do you think that is preferable?

You don’t believe the “golden rule” is a substantive social construct? Wow.

If you understand the idea of a “ministry of reconciliation,” where man is encouraged to help man in good ways, what is the non-believers' alternative? Government?!! Good grief.

I would argue that a godless world has not worked at all. While you point to such things as the crusades, “people killing people in the name of God,” you have not approached my sense of the divine, which, by the way, does not allow for such things as the crusades. Because bad people do bad things has nothing to do with my faith. That includes the actions of those who have expelled me from seminary and church.

I have had my doubts and have experienced certain life changing inequities. Again, none of that speaks to the issue of faith in God. I can only hope that, in time, you will tire of the structured chaos in your life. Understand that I believe in God because I see no intellectual choice, among other considerations. The man and apostle, Paul, wrote of his own hypocrisy as a believer in a bible passage we know as Romans 7, verses 14 through chapter 8 and verse 1. You really need to read that passage. When I read it to a drug infested moron on meth or whatever, they always say, “Hey, this is me” and more often than not, that euphony is the beginning of their walk with their God.

You’re an existentialist, dude.

Existentialism is always about “me.” Good luck with “me.” God, if revealed and accepted, is always about Him and that fact is the fact that gives believers direction and a degree of consistency.

I freely admit that I cannot “prove” God. You need to admit that your world is equally unsettling.

In the end, the difference between you and I is the difference between facing life with “me” and facing life with “God."