Saturday, October 1, 2022

Neither theism nor atheism

Sometimes we don't believe in God, but we believe in certain other people, and because those people believe in God, we believe in God too in a kind of proxy way.

'He can see things — strange things.' Shelly leaned close to me and whispered, 'Rosa tells me that Benni can see a little bit of God's hidden life.'

'Does God have a hidden life?' I asked.

Shelly snorted. 'George, where is your head? Everything that lives has a hidden life!'

'But you told me once you don't believe in God.'

'That's true. But I believe in Rosa!'

'So what does Rosa think that God does in his hidden life?' I asked.

'I have no idea,' he said with a shrug.

— Richard Zimler. The Incandescent Threads. Parthian, 2022.

book cover for THE INCANDESCENT THREADS

"Jewish tradition calls this reality God, but that word is so heavy with question and misconception that I have mostly avoided using it. I am far more concerned about the nature of the encounter than I am about the term we use for its referent."

— Eugene B. Borowitz. Renewing the Covenant: A Theology for the Postmodern Jew. (1991) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996. p. 114.


"An agnostic?" Barbara asked. "Isn't that someone who doesn't believe God can be understood?"

"Almost," said Bloomer. "What I think Ira's saying is that he's not even sure enough to be sure he can't know something. Ergo, he's not an agnostic."

— John R. Maxim. Platforms. New York: Avon Books, 2002.


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