The Natural Condition and the Supernatural Question

A person who can't accept reality will never accept God.

The world was set up to make sense. By that I mean: the world was set up to be plausible, to stand up to scrutiny, and to reveal its secrets if we are persistent enough to tease them out. The world was set up to be a place where physical causes produce physical effects in a way that is susceptible to being reasoned out, even if the causes and effects themselves spill blood or ooze pus. The world was not set up as a padded comfy happy den playpen, and this fact disturbs some people.

I'm okay with it myself. I came to terms with it, I think I was about seven years old at the time.

From the largest living things on earth all the way down to the tiniest bent bit of self-replicating DNA, nature is red in tooth and claw. Vicious beasts human and animal leap out to wound and devour passersby human and animal. Naked bits of genetic material move from host to host, doing all in their power to multiply, spread, and conquer without regard to the hideous symptoms they induce along the way. Groups of animals band together for safety, and organize as best they can to collectively fend off starvation or die trying.

Everything dies. And it is because everything dies that everything you see now living can find its way in life. Life continues to be suited to its current conditions, because of this continuous struggle to improvise, adapt, overcome. The struggle itself is what equips life to continue.

There are reasons for this. There are reasons why the world is set up to make sense, and why life is set up to overcome adversity. My personal theory: God was in the Marines.

Comments