{"id":2846,"date":"2009-09-20T10:50:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T16:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/so-open-the-box-already-shroedinger\/"},"modified":"2024-09-17T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T22:20:30","slug":"so-open-the-box-already-shroedinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/so-open-the-box-already-shroedinger\/","title":{"rendered":"“So, Open the Box Already.” – Schrödinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, a friend of mine recounted a difficult day that ended well. I nodded along \u2013 we\u2019ve all been there and will be again. Then, she ended the tale with \u201cgod is good all the time<\/em>\u201d and I was taken aback. Nothing in her tale invoked or even hinted at a god, as far as I could tell. This was not a tale of being saved from a terrible fate; this was a mundane event.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing now because, sometimes, writing helps me understand. Further, I imagine my friend would be taken aback by me being taken aback. We have an opportunity for discussion here, but we know going in, no minds will be changed fundamentally. Her surprisingly-casual and intimate relationship with the divine will not change nor will the scales fall from my eyes. I don\u2019t want to change her or challenge her but I do want to respond to her or, rather, the shock I felt.<\/p>\n

First, people have a right and need to speak and not everything we say should be analyzed or challenged. Self-expression becomes more difficult from adolescence on. In my case, so much of what I say is sheer glibbery, but, then, I don\u2019t have an immortal soul or a god to back it up. If I did, s\/he would save me from myself right now.<\/p>\n

Secondly, in this world aflame, it is common to blurt out \u201cscrew you\u201d or \u201cyou lie\u201d in self-righteousness and self-importance. I do not mean to do so here.<\/p>\n

I mean, instead, to get back to that initial story in which I saw no god and my friend saw \u201chim\u201d (?) every step of the way. That she believes in a god is not shocking. That she believes \u201cgod is good all the time<\/em>\u201d is jaw-dropping, given endless evidence to the contrary. It is as if we live in what should be separate universes. Yet here we are, occupying the same space-time with one huge paradox: : hers has a god and mine does not. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, a friend of mine recounted a difficult day that ended well. I nodded along \u2013 we\u2019ve all been there and will be again. Then, she ended the tale with \u201cgod is good all the time\u201d and I was taken aback. Nothing in her tale invoked or even hinted at a god, as far as … Continue reading “So, Open the Box Already.” – Schrödinger<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-atheists-pulpit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8779,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846\/revisions\/8779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}