Outro: Farewell
Thus, the
philosophical argument of this book closes.
But I will add a
creative bit of writing at the very end. It isn't expository in style. It is a
short dialogue that attempts in a more creative way to capture the whole case
this book has tried to make. A brief one act play, if you like, with almost no
physical action, but a great deal of the mental kind.
I hope you enjoy.
Farewell.
__________________________________________________________________
(A scene in a
sidewalk café in Vancouver, Canada, where two characters meet and have a
Socratic dialogue. University of British Columbia graduate student, Titus Flavius,
known to his friends as Flux, is drinking coffee and relaxing in the sunshine. His
friend, Evo, another grad student, strolls past. Flux recognizes him and calls
out.)
Flux: Evo! Evo, you subversive
element! Over here!
Evo: (Drawing
near.) Well, well. The quarry you see when you don’t have a gun. What
mischief are you plotting now? Wait. I’ll get a coffee. (Goes to counter.)
Flux: (Muttering
to himself.) Hmm. Just the guy I wanted to see. I think.
Evo: (Approaching
with his coffee in hand and sitting.) So, what’s up, bro?
Flux: The truth is …
I’ve been getting more and more obsessed in the last few weeks with the whole
debate over the existence of God. And moral relativism, and whether we need to
believe in God to be good. Whether people in general do, I mean. Not you and
me. We’re so good we’re excellent. That’s an axiom.
(Laughs awkwardly.)
Evo: (Glancing at
a girl going by.) I can resist anything but temptation. Wild Oscar said
that. But seriously, folks.
Flux: (Looking
glum.) It is serious, actually, this moral thing. These
days, I can’t seem to think of anything else. Almost everyone I talk to at UBC
despises religion, but none of them have a way of deciding what right and wrong
are. It’s all relative, they say. Then I say they’re committing humanity to
permanent warfare, probably annihilation, when they say things like that. They
shrug and tell me to grow up. We’re doomed, my friend. Humanity is doomed, even
if it is a nice day. (Slurps his coffee. Laughs darkly.)
Evo: Are you sure you
want to start this conversation? I have a lot to say on the subject, you know.
And, after all, I am older and wiser than you are. (Laughs.)
Flux: Ah, be serious.
But … yeah, I know you’ve thought about this one. Which makes me ask – if
you’re okay with talking about it – you still believe in God?
Evo: I do.
Flux: When we talked
about this before, your answers didn’t really work for me. But you’re saying
you still believe?
Evo: Yes. (Pauses.)
I don’t buy most of the world’s religions, or priests, or holy books. But the
answer is, basically, yes.
Flux: Still.
Evo: More than ever.
When did we last talk about this stuff? At that party at the lake?
Flux: Yeah. That was
it. And you haven’t changed your mind? At all?
Evo: No. (Pauses.)
The short answer is “no”.
Flux: What’s the long
answer?
Evo: (laughs)
How much time do you have?
Flux: It’s Friday
afternoon. I got no place I have to be till Monday morning. Come on. Seriously.
The whole issue is weighing me down.
Evo: Well, how about
you ask questions, and I’ll try to answer them.
Flux: Alright, so be
it. So, do you really believe in God, in your most private heart of hearts?
Evo: Yes.
Flux: What was the
crucial moment or crucial logical step, or whatever you call it, for you?
Evo: No one moment.
No one step. No epiphanies. I came to it gradually for a bunch of reasons,
backed by logic and evidence. Later, it did get personal. It’s in my “heart of
hearts”, as you put it. I call my own kind of religion theism,
which isn’t a very original term. But I need to be clear that I think each of
us has to work out his or her own way of conceiving of God and relate to that
personally in their own good time. I came to believe that moral beliefs can be
based on what Science is based on – the facts of empirical reality. That’s
moral realism, and it led me gradually to think we have to design a moral code
that’s acceptable for all people, and then live by it …and learn to live
together. Gotta do that if we’re gonna survive. I got motivated to think hard
for a while. I came to two conclusions. First, that moral values do name things
that are real, and second, that the core belief in the moral code that will
allow us to survive …that core belief is theism. In other words, moral realism
logically entails theism.
Flux: All right, wait
a minute. Realism? You’re saying values are real like this cup is real? I’m not
gambling on whether this cup of coffee is in my hand right now. It’s there. It’s
real. I’m certain of it.
Evo: No, actually that
statement isn’t a certainty, even if you think you’re certain of it. Human
senses can be fooled. That’s what the movie The Matrix is
about.
Flux: Hmm. Okay. I
take your point.
Evo: Every belief is
a gamble, even our belief in Science and the scientific method. The smartest of
smart gambles is theism. Believing in God. Not so I can improve my odds of
getting into some dimly imagined afterlife, but so I and my kind can survive.
Here. On Earth. So we can handle what the future’s going to throw at us.
Navigate the hazards. Once I proved my version of a universal moral code to my
own satisfaction, from there it was a series of small steps to the core belief
in God.
Flux: But you must
have periods of doubt? Surely.
Evo: I used to. But
they’ve almost gone. Mostly because I keep answering the doubts inside my own
head. Over and over. I’ve seen the doubters’ best moves. I can whip ’em. (Laughs.)
Flux: So …what then?
Your belief, in your head ̶ your
theism, I mean – is constantly fighting for its life?
Evo: Pretty much. All
beliefs in all heads have to fight to survive.
Flux: But you don’t
worry that one day the theism in your head is going to lose?
Evo: I don’t know for
sure that I’ll never lose my faith, but the signs are that it’s pretty durable.
Flux: And yet you
love Science?
Evo: Absolutely.
Science is God’s way for us. For humans in general, I mean.
Flux: Were you ever
an atheist?
Evo: Oh, sure. I look
back on it now as a phase I had to go through. Everyone does. Some people don’t
ever get to the other side, that’s all. Other side of that atheist phase, I
mean.
Flux: You don’t worry
that what you see in the real world is …only what you want to see?
Evo: I see Science
and the theories of Science, Flux. Testable. Repeatable. They and all the
experimental evidence that supports them keep telling me, more and more, that
God is there. Here. Real.
Flux: But you did
have periods of doubt?
Evo: Oh, yes. For
fifteen years. And then I only came around a few years ago to believing I ought
to believe in God. That it was a smart gamble. And that everything in life is a
gamble in the end. Even the most basic things you trust – not just Science, but
even believing your hands are at the ends of your arms because you see and feel
them there. Sense data. Things you sense. But for a long time, that smart
theistic gamble wasn’t personal. Not personal like you love Marie or your mom
and dad. It was only cerebral. I believed in believing in God, but I didn’t believe
– like – primally, if you get my meaning.
Flux: Yeah, I get
your meaning. So what changed?
Evo: I started
meditating. Every day. Half an hour or so. Sometimes, twice a day.
Flux: Did you take a
course?
Evo: Yes.
Flux: Which one?
Evo: It doesn’t matter.
Check around. Find one that works for you. Then it’ll feel like it’s yours.
Flux: Hmm. Okay.
That’s fair. And then what? God just arrived?
Evo: Basically, yes.
I realized one day that I was hearing an inner voice. Not a great way of putting
it, but close enough. During the time when I was trying to control every detail
in my life, I was going nuts. Then I learned to accept handling just the
details my conscience – God’s voice in my head – told me were mine to handle,
my responsibility. It was like, I became “response-able” – able to
respond – and then I got good solutions just as I was coming out of my
meditation, or right after. It was a way of thinking about God that made sense
to me. Let God – the universe, if you like – talk to me. Then I’d get some
quiet, excellent answers. Like a presence was hovering by me, nurturing me.
That’s not very dramatic. But it’s how I experience my personal sense of God.
Like I love my kids. Or my dad. Personal. First, for large, evidence-backed
reasons, and then, second, for internally felt ones.
Flux: (Studying
his friend) And it still seems like a rational decision to you?
Evo: More than that,
Flux. I think as a species we’re all going to have to come to some form of Moral
Realism, then theism, if we’re going to get past the crises that are coming.
Getting rid of nukes. Fixing the environment. Moral realism is the only option
that has any chance of working. Nobody trusts the so-called sacred texts or
priests anymore. Most don’t trust personal epiphanies either, no matter how
intense the event feels. We know it’s too easy to see what you want to see.
First, we want models that fit our observations of empirical evidence, over and
over. And Moral Realism, for me, is that kind of true. It’s a model of reality
that fits the facts of History and life …every day.
Flux: You think
Science proves that God exists? I know people who’d laugh out loud at that.
Evo: They don’t see
History or Anthropology as sciences . And don’t analyze Science itself. If they
did, they’d reconsider.
Flux: So tell me. For
you, what moral values are grounded in empirical reality?
Evo: Sure. For
example, humans have gradually evolved responses to entropy, over billions of
people and thousands of generations. The cultures that emerge may vary from era
to era and place to place, but every culture seeks a balance of courage and
wisdom. Those values are our big-scale responses to entropy, the “uphillness”
of life. Courage and wisdom. Other balanced sets of values built around freedom
and love are our responses to quantum uncertainty. All four values – courage,
wisdom, freedom, and love (checks them off on his fingers) – inform the
software of all nations that survive because they shape how people in those
tribes behave. In other words, their values connect them to reality. And those
basic traits of adversity and uncertainty, remember, are built into our
universe down to the atoms. They’re all over, all the time. We learned to
handle entropy and uncertainty, not as individuals, but as tribes, over
centuries, by building our societies more and more on those four values.
Flux: Well, I gotta
say you sure have your spiel down. But those are some pretty vague moral
principles to build a culture on. A lot of radically different societies could
be constructed that all claimed they were brave and wise and so on.
Evo: Which is only to
say how free we truly are, Flux. But notice my system is way different than
saying moral values are arbitrary tastes, like a preference for vanilla shakes
over chocolate, or Irish Spring soap over Ivory.
Flux: I think I see
where you’re going with this line of thought. Actually, in theory, we could
build an ideal society or something pretty close, couldn’t we?
Evo: We’ve been
working our way toward that realization for two hundred thousand years.
Flux: These moral
values, the way you describe them, must have been worked out over a long time,
and also with a lot of pain then …right?
Evo: Pain and death,
Flux. Which is why we’re taught to respect our values so much. Our accumulated
wisdom keeps telling us not to re-do our past mistakes.
Flux: Here’s a mental
leap coming at you. How would the kind of society you envision — brave, wise,
free, tolerant — right? – how would it evolve, without war or revolution? How
would it resolve an internal argument over …say …a controversial social issue?
Evo: Yay! A smart
question. An issue like capital punishment, say?
Flux: Whoa! Quick
answer. But, yeah. Not the one I had in mind, but a good example, actually.
Evo: Reasoning and
evidence. Consensus-building. Scientific studies. Calm persuasion. The facts
say it doesn’t work, you know. Capital punishment.
Flux: How so? It
seems to me that it solves a problem permanently.
Evo: Countries that
get rid of it see their murder rates go down, not up. It doesn’t deter
potential killers. Just the opposite. It makes them determined to leave no
witnesses. To any crime. And then capital trials drag on and on ’cause juries
don’t want to make a mistake. In the end, it costs more to execute an accused
killer than to lock him up …for good. Long-term studies say so.
Flux: What if he
lives a really long time?
Evo: In my system,
barring exceptional circumstances, he’d stay locked up. But most of them die in
under twenty years. They’re mostly people who live unhealthy lifestyles. Junk
food. Drugs. Smoking. Hate exercise but keep getting into fights. They don’t
last long, in prison or out. On average, I mean.
Flux: But even if,
say for the sake of argument, they only last twenty years in prison, it’s a
long time. Guards to pay, meals, meds, entertainment – Christ! Entertainment
yet! – it’s gotta add up.
Evo: Not as much as
killing him does by, like, nearly three times. The studies say so. On average,
killers only live about sixteen years after they go to prison.
Flux: I’ll look it up
later. But to get back to our point …you think we can solve all our disputes by
debate and compromise?
Evo: Based on
reasoning and evidence, the answer is yes. And patience. Just not war. The
Soviet Union went from being an unstoppable superpower to gone in my lifetime.
With no global war. I’ll never doubt the power of patience again.
Flux: I think I’m
beginning to see your point a bit. You see moral …rules …maybe, guidelines is
better …as being grounded in facts of physical reality?
Evo: Not in all
lands. But they should be. I’ve made that case for myself and some others many
times over. Entropy and quantum uncertainty are built into reality. As long as
I’m in this universe, life will be hard and scary, so courage, wisdom, freedom,
and love will always be virtues. That picture – for me, anyway – is more
reliable than my senses. It’s eternal. I’m 99.99 percent sure.
Flux: And that proves
for you that God exists?
Evo: That and a
couple of other main points. It takes a sort of faith even to believe the
universe stays consistent from place to place and era to era. No one can prove
the future will go like the past. But we take it as a given that the universe
has that kind of consistency. Science wouldn’t make any sense under any other
first assumption. Then, I get direction from cutting-edge Science – namely
Quantum Physics. All the particles in the universe are what physicists
call entangled, you know. Which means the universe has a kind of
awareness.
Flux: What, like I’m
aware?
Evo: As far beyond
your and my awareness as the universe is beyond us in size. Yeah, that’s a hell
of a statement. I know full well what I’m saying. But look at the evidence. Let
me say it all at once, as plainly as I can. The first step to theism is
believing in the consistency of the universe. The second is believing the
universe is aware. The third is Moral Realism, which means believing that
courage, wisdom, freedom, and brotherly love steer us into paths through
matter, space, and time. These three beliefs – in the consistency of the
universe, in its aware nature, and in universal moral truth, when they’re added
together, tell me this universe is a single, aware, caring thing. “God,” if you
like that term. If not, that’s okay. Call it by whatever name works for you.
Flux: Cold sort of
caring, don’t you think? There are a lot of cruel things in life.
Evo: No, it just
looks that way to us sometimes. But it’s unreasonable and unfair for me to ask
God to pardon me from getting cancer or meningitis or whatever …if the dice
roll that way. God loves it all, all the time. God loves the avalanche that
buries the careless skier who skis out of bounds. God loves malignant cells and
meningococcal bacteria just as much as God loves me. We may learn how to change
the odds, to cure meningitis or prevent cancer, but in a universe that is
balanced and free, those scientific advances are up to us. Our brains evolved
to solve puzzles exactly like those ones.
Flux: You know there
are people who get the consistency-of-the-laws-of-science idea, even the
quantum-entanglement-awareness one, but leave you right at that moral realism
step.
Evo: Oh, I know. They
keep trying to find another way to base moral principles in the natural world.
A lot of people don’t want God. They wanna be in charge. Nietzsche said God
couldn’t exist, because if he did, Nietzsche could never believe he himself
wasn’t God. Something like that. What a child! (Laughs)
Flux: Other species
like chimps and squirrels find altruism on their own, you know. Sometimes, one
of them will do something for the good of the community and even get killed
because of it. Trying to save others. From a weasel, say.
Evo: The next thing
to ask is: What kind of a universe rewards those animals’ practicing altruism?
People finding altruism in nature and saying that means they don’t need to
believe in God in order to be decent …that dodge is no dodge at all. It only
delays answering the question. Why is being altruistic – what they call “good”
– a desirable way to be for squirrels? So the tribe survives? If so, we have to
ask: what does that say about life in this reality?
Flux: All right, I
see why you say that. Hmm. You aim to find moral values that would be moral even
to aliens from other worlds, don’t you? Do you dislike people who keep, as you
say, “dodging” the moral realism question?
Evo: Not at all. As
long as I can see that they’re trying to live lives of courage, wisdom,
freedom, and love, I love them. They may get old and die and never say that
they believe in anything like God, but I don’t care. I still love them. Hey, if
they try hard to live decent lives, for me that’s enough. But believe in God?
By the evidence that shows on the outside of them – which, by the way, is all
Science cares about – they actually do. Do believe, I mean. They just choose a
lonely existence inside. Which is their choice, of course. But I still love
them.
Flux: They’d tell you
that viewpoint is pretty condescending.
Evo: They have, many
times. It’s still okay. We can live together in peace. And evolve and survive.
That’s all that really matters. (Pauses) But we must choose to live.
Surviving is not a given. So, we need a system of ethics in order to decide
even simple things, minute by minute, day in and day out, about every object
and event we meet up with. Good or bad? Important or trivial? Take action or
not? What are my action choices? Which one looks like the best gamble in this
situation? An efficient moral code will be one that’s laid out so our
decisions are quick, accurate, and effective. Consistent with the facts of
reality, short and long term. A central organizing concept – a belief in God –
is just efficient. At least to start with. It’s only after a lot of change
inside yourself that it becomes personal. But first of all it’s just efficient.
It enables timely action. It gets results.
Flux: Your picture
isn’t very comforting, you know, Evo. The mental space it offers to live in is
pretty bare.
Evo: I know. I’d be a
liar if I offered you easy grace. You first have to choose to live free – responsible
for your own life. Then so many other challenges come. But they’d come anyway.
It’s just that if you choose to live unfree, to bow your head and take the
beatings tyrants dish out, without trying to figure things out or act to improve
your odds of happiness, your life’ll be even worse. You have to choose to
choose, and even then life is going to be rough. God’s a hard case. But I’m
okay with seeing God as a pretty hard case. To make something out of nothing,
he has to be. It takes a balance of forces to make something out of nothing.
And in that picture, God made us free, Flux. Whether we choose to rise to the
challenge, to live bravely and creatively, is up to us. Out of the labor and
struggle, we make ourselves – and then our society – what we call “good”. If
we’re really good, we teach our kids to do the same. Hopefully, even better.
Flux: You don’t
believe in miracles, do you?
Evo: “Only in a way”
would be my answer there. I think events that look miraculous happen. Things that
look like exceptions to the laws of Science. But they turn out to have
scientific explanations. For me, everything I see all the time is the miracle.
What’s it doing here? Why isn’t there just nothing? And then the living things
in the world are more miraculous, and then …my baby’s smile …you know what they
say. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Flux: Is there a
church you could belong to? Are you pulled to any of them?
Evo: Unitarians,
maybe? Nah, that’s another question that you need to answer for yourself.
Flux: Any you hate?
Evo: Honestly? Nearly
all of them. Priests make up mumbo-jumbo to take away people’s ability to think
for themselves. It’s easy with most people ‘cause they don’t wanna think. They want
security. But there’s no such thing. Not in this lifetime. That one I’m sure
of. Maybe they don’t consciously make up the b.s., but they do make it up.
Priests do, I mean. Religion gets them a slack lifestyle so they gravitate toward
making up ways to protect that. Over generations, the lies just keep getting
worse. No, I’m not big on organized religion.
Flux: Would you call
yourself a dreamer? A starry-eyed optimist?
Evo: I seem that way
to some people. My view of myself is that I look at the long haul. I’m most
interested in that. Then, what energy I have left over I give to the confusing
ups and downs of everyday life. You could call me a dreamer. But cynics are
cowards to me. It’s the dreamers who have courage. And once in a while they turn
out to be right, you know. (Laughs.)
Flux: I better let
you go, Evo. I’ve kept you long enough. I was just feeling …down …you know.
Evo: You’re not
keeping me from anything that matters as much as this talk does, bro.
Flux: Alright. I’ll
take that as being sincere. Actually, knowing you as long as I have, I know it
is. Thank you. I’m feeling …I don’t know …hopeful, somehow, right now. (Pauses.)
Actually …I think I get it.
Evo: Welcome home,
Flavius, my friend. Welcome home.
Korso, Krosko, Sandon
(credit: Arald
Vagen via Wikimedia Commons)
Here the Great River
Now empties into the sea;
Here the babbles and
roars of Duality cease;
Every echoing gorge,
every swirling façade
Is dissolved in the
infinite ocean of God.
