DON'T CONFUSE ME WITH FACTS

I have been told the three things you should be very careful in discussing with anyone are politics, sex and religion. In previous Blogs we have discussed politics at length, touched on sex, and now I'm about to step on the third rail. Let's talk religion.

In politics, the left is 100% sure they are correct with 1/2 the facts. The right thinks they are 100% correct with the other 1/2 of the facts. In sex only the women have the facts. In religion the Believers and the Atheist think they are each 100% correct with no facts.

Let's take a look at the three major categories of religious belief:

Believer.

A believer sees the existence of God everywhere and needs no science to confirm his belief.

Believers can be divided into two categories: those who believe in a personal God, a God who can be talked to and will answer back. An example of God as a personal God would be the Jewish grandmother who was watching her only grandchild playing on the beach when a giant wave came and took him out to sea. Grandma pleaded, "Please God, save my only grandson. I beg of you bring him back." And a big wave came and washes him back onto the beach, good as new. Grandma looks up to heaven and says, "Pardon me, but he had a hat!"

The second category of Believer is a Deist. Deist believe in an impersonal God, an energy, a force of nature, but not a good conversationalist. Some well-known Deists were: George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Paine and Thomas Payne.

Agnostic

An Agnostic is a person who thinks that God's existence cannot be proven on the basis of current evidence, but who doesn't deny the possibility that God exist. Believers and Atheists are often viewed as unenlightened by agnostics’ because of their blind following of a supreme being which may or may not exist. Blind following of popular religions is viewed as an easy out for people who chose not to think for themselves.  An agnostic knows that just because there is no physical proof of the existence of a higher being, it does not automatically mean that one does not exist. So to be safe Agnostics would be best to follow the tenets of what's known as Pascal's Wager, named after the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. He figured if we live our life as if there is a God and at the end we find out there isn't, nothing lost (except possibly a more "unrestrained" life). If we bet there isn't a God, and we are wrong, we're in the crapper for eternity. (My words, not Pascal's)..

Atheist

An Atheist views the case against the evidence of God as "settled science." If God can't be proven, God doesn't exist. (That brings up the question, if God doesn't believe in Atheists, do Atheists really exist?) Atheists do not wish to be defined as having a disbelief in gods, but having a lack of belief (subtle but a difference none the less). Maybe Atheists are not as far from Believers as we think, they have only one fewer God than the Believers.

Since definitive proof for or against the existence of God does not exist what separates the three categories is simply a matter of faith or no faith. I say "simply," but almost a billion people have been killed in religious wars just since we have been counting. Turn on the news and you can watch that number rise each day

Think about this. How much of the religious' rivalry we have had and have today would be greatly reduced if we could separate God from religion? How much more accepted would God be to non believers if He were separated from his groupies?

This brings me to an important question in any discussion of religion. Do you believe in God? Not the God as He has been fleshed out by the various religions, but the concept of "God." I heard a man on the radio once asked if he was "happy." The man said he was, once he changed his definition of happiness. Any Agnostics or Atheists reading this, could you believe in God if you changed your definition? If you can't accept a personal God, could you see yourself as a Deist?

It would appear creation of the universe is a main sticking point between Believers and Atheists. Believers believe that in the beginning there was an ultimate being which caused everything, whereas

Atheists believe in the beginning there was nothing--which exploded and expanded to what we have today. Both defy logic and what the answer really is is not even available on Google. If God created the universe, what created God? Here is a classic story which I am sure will clear everything up.

WILLIAM JAMES: "The sun is the center of the solar system with the earth rotating around it."
LITTLE OLD LADY: "Wrong theory. I have a better theory."
WILLIAM JAMES: "And what is that?"
LITTLE OLD LADY: "That we live on a crust of earth which is on the back of a giant turtle,"
WILLIAM JAMES: "If your theory is correct, madam, "what does this turtle stand on?"
LITTLE OLD LADY:" The first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger, turtle."
WILLIAM JAMES: Thinking he had her now said, "But what does this second turtle stand on?"
LITTLE OLD LADY: "Mr. James---it's turtles all the way down."

Did God indeed create the world out of nothing? One day it wasn't and seven days later, there we were? If He was able to create the earth out of nothing, why did He need to take a man's rib to create Eve? I don't mind that He did, but why did he have to take the one that holds in our stomach? (If one takes the words in the bible literally every thinking person would be an Atheist. If people were to take the words in the bible by their meaning, every thinking person would be a Believer.) Or, was the universe not created by God, it "always was and always will be?" Is there really turtles all the way down?"

Back again to faith: Faith gives Believers a strong belief in God absent any proof. Atheists have a strong lack of belief in God absent any proof. With just a small tweaking in the definition of God, could Atheism be the Atheist "God?"

Bob wins the Powerball jackpot. He agrees to give a million dollars to charity if he can go to Yankee stadium and pitch to Alex Rodriguez. He bets another million that he can strike out A-Rod with three pitches. Joe Girardi, the Yankees manger, takes that bet. Bob throws pitch one, A-Rod puts it over the center field fence. Pitch two, A-Rod puts over the right field fence. Pitch three, over the left field fence. Bob walks slowly back to Girardi and says, "I don't think that's A-Rod."

Are we walking around as confident as Bob when it comes to our own relationship with a God or a no God? We all view our world in ways that make sense to us, but there is that slight possibility we may be wrong. Without solid, human-like proof regarding a God's existence it would seem that all but Agnostics are delusional, but if our delusions are not harmful to us or anyone else maybe we should all be satisfied living with our own illusions and for God or no God's sake let's all stop judging others.

NFL REGULATION FOOTBALL (reprint)

This article also appeared in Chicken Soup For The Sports Fan's Soul. (2000)

The year was 1964. The place was Chicago. A man I worked with had acquired a couple of special, all-leather, NFL-regulation footballs, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears, and was selling them at a good price.

My first son was on the way. (This was in pre-ultrasound days, but I figured we had at least a 50/50 chance it would be a son. It was a chance I was willing to take.) I bought the football. I had my son's "coming home from the hospital" gift -- an all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears. That was something special.

Several years later, young Tom (we were not too creative in the name department) was rummaging around in the garage as only a five year old can rummage when he came across the special, all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears. He asked if he could play with it.

With as much logic as I felt he could understand, I explained to him that he was still a bit too young to play carefully with such a special football. We had the same conversation several more times in the next few months, and soon the requests faded away.

The next fall, after watching a football game on television, Tom asked, "Dad, remember that football you have in the garage? Can I use it to play with the guys now?"

Eyes rolling up in my head, I replied, "Tom, you don't understand; you just don't go out and casually throw around an all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears. I told you before; it's special."

Eventually Tom stopped asking altogether, but he did remember. A few years later he told his younger brother, Dave, about the all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears that was special and kept somewhere in the garage. Dave came to me one day asking if he could take that special football and throw it around. It seemed like I'd been through this before, but I patiently explained, once again, that you don't just go out for no reason and throw around an all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears.

So Soon Dave, too, stopped asking.

A couple of months ago I was in the garage looking for some WD-40 (which, with the aid of a rubber hammer, I use to fix about everything I choose to fix), when I noticed a large box that had "coveralls" written across it. I couldn't remember bringing along any coveralls when we moved from Chicago to Albuquerque, so I opened the box. There, long forgotten, was the all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed -- 1963 Chicago Bears.

It wasn't special anymore. It wasn't special at all.

I stood alone in the garage. The boys had long since moved away from home, and suddenly I realized the football had never been so special after all. Children playing with it when it was their time to play would have made it special. I had blown those precious, present moments that can never be reclaimed, and I had saved a hunk of leather filled with stale air. For what?

I took the football across the street and gave it to a family with young children. A couple of hours later I looked out the window. They were throwing, catching, kicking and letting skid across the cement my all-leather, NFL-regulation football, inscribed — 1963 Chicago Bears. 

Now it was special!

You may not have a football stashed away in a coverall box, but do you have dishes that are too good to use, furniture that's too expensive to sit on, clothes and aged bottles of wine for that special occasion that never comes? Are you "doing more   Are you "doing more with less," "doing better faster," and "sticking twelve hours of work in a ten hour bag," to get more "things," while at the same time not using, or even appreciating, the "things" you do have? Are you letting the one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated moments — the footballs in life — get away?

Lesson: If you save something long enough, you will lose it.