Subject: Re: atheism
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Wed Jan 19 2000 - 03:38:43 EST
I find amazing - honest injun, no sarcasm - that a technical,
theological discussion can trigger such an avalanche of informed,
deeply felt words from such a variety of sincere people.
Europeans like me are bewildered when we hear how vitally
religious concerns continue, apparently, to engage the American
consciousness. Even in these putatively Catholic parts, no one
gets much exercised, let alone shot, over doctrinal issues such
as creationism or contraception - or even abortion. (The war
in the North of Ireland has been more tribal than religious.)
While, reportedly, American chapels fill up, ours grow rapidly
empty.
Yet a considerable fuss is being made of a new film which I haven't
yet seen - Graham Greene's The End of the Affair - whose central
issue is the presence or absence of God. Although a cradle agnostic
who in life runs a mile from the company of believers, I've always
been considerably more affected by Greene than, for example, Salinger.
And The End of the Affair seems to me his undoubted masterpiece,
one of the very few books I never tire of re-reading.
I wonder why it is that so many of us find a narrative, a story,
a fable, a parable, so much more haunting & persuasive than
an argument?
Scottie B.
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