Making Light: All Religions are UPG

[rug]

25. I've had a lot of strange conversations in my life, including odd conversations about epistemology.

I can't say that I've had one about God and epistemology, nor can I say I've had any sort of a personal encounter with God.

The basic concept of God is that it is unknowable, so knowledge is not in my view the best way to understand or experience a concept of God. Most religions start from revelation, that is, whatever we know of God is revealed by God since, again, it is unknowable and unreachable by human efforts alone.

That said, I make a point of knowing what my religion, Catholic, teaches about what it considers to be revealed and I make an effort to learn what other religions teach as well.

Beyond that, since I believe what my religion teaches, I mostly look around and see how it plays out. For the most part it holds together.

I've been around atheists since college. One was a close friend who overtly rejected Catholicism and made his point by throwing a crucifix in a trash can. I thought that was stupid and we argued more about him being an ass than about belief, knowledge or faith.

I also spent a lot of time with American communists (very much into revolutionary communism) whose concern with religion, faith, or atheism was very definitely an afterthought. It had nothing to do with religion or faith because it was irrelevant to dialectical materialism (a position I agree with) and opposed religion so much as it was aligned with the ruling classes and class oppression. Given that this was the era of Vietnam, soon to be followed by Reagan, and before the ascendence of the religious right, it really didn't come up much. However, I am confident that if asked today what the enemy is, capital, not religion, would be the focus of the battle. So, I guess atheism was irrelevant to that as well.

Now, I'm pretty close friends with a professional clown who I met at Kids' Night at the local Perkins Restaurant. He says he simply doesn't believe in the same tone that others say they don't like squash.

I suppose, overall, I don't get the big deal about viciously countering atheism and viciously countering theism. If pressed, I would give the same answer the clown gives, I prefer belief, it makes sense to me at sits well with me. If pressed further about the causes of repression and oppression, I would give the same answers my old comrades gave: the atheist/theist argument is for the most part a petit bourgeois squabble that only divides and continues to allow the grand bourgeoisie to maintain.