Almost seeing truth

This was, I thought, a very nice and honest discussion by the Reverend. Two things pop up from this talk. The first is that he (and others like him) have at least acknowledged the big problems of a benevolent God. I was actually touched by his sincerity and thoughtfulness. There was an amount of honestly and intellectual rigor I am unaccustomed to hearing from religious people on religion. I can say I do feel for him and his problem. He really wants to believe, but the cognitive dissidence has clearly become disturbing to him and I feel empathy for his "loss" (loss in the sense of the loss of simple unthinking faith of a child in God).

Secondly, though, I found it intellectually interesting that he only makes the case for a God to believe in and worship. For instance, he could have concluded that there is a god who is very evil and once in a while induces some massive suffering on the world. Secondly, he could have postulated no god. At the end he comes very close, but never says it when he talks about a god which is simply the universe plus some supernatural stuff. I have always said atheism is not for everyone. It is harder than religious believe but it it intellectually honest. Still, I feel for him, the blissful ignorance of unthinking faith, once gone is almost impossible to restore.