Before you read this I must warn you that it was written as a stream of consciousness. I apologize for the poor quality of the writing. If anyone is interested in my pursuing any of these thoughts in a more refined way let me know.
I wonder what I would write if I just started writing. What am I thinking about? Well as I sit here and type I am reminded of Hunter S. Thompson’s endeavor to type out great novels. He once typed out “The Great Gatsby!” I kind of want to do that, but I am not sure I have the patience. What would it be like to write that prolifically: to describe scenery like a poet, understand characters like a psychologist, and play God as I complete the story. A character’s life is in your hands: his selfhood, his hopes, and his dreams are yours to fulfill or crush. I wonder what it would be like to have such power? Being God must be a terribly difficult gig. However, if God is God then I am sure that His joy in being God probably sustains Him through our ragamuffin exploitations of life. God gives us life, directs us through it, and has the end all planned out. He is completely in tune with this project. We think of God as having the power to curb reality, but do we think He has the responsibility. I mean sure there could a supreme being that created the universe but it could have been by chance. What we cannot object to is the now. Right now time is passing as I type. Women are giving birth, little boys are being put to bed, and old men are saying their last good bye to their sweethearts. Even more so, gravity is staying at a constant, the Earth is still spinning, and the moon is still keeping the ocean levels in check. What is holding all this together if not a sustainer? One may appear to natural law but who made natural law a constant? We do not know that tomorrow the Earth will not fall of its axis and drift into the sun. What we do have is faith. Faith that things will keep on going the way they has always gone on. Why? Probably because we have experienced it our whole life and therefore take it for granted. Sure, things have acted this way for at least 24 years, so why not one more day? I guess all I am trying accomplish is to show that it takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a Christian. The difference is control. Secondly, I want to show that belief in a creator God is not enough. If there is an Almighty creator, then He must be an Almighty sustainer. The universe is ordered, was ordered, and, we assume, will continue to be ordered. Order cannot be taken for granted. The difference between a garden with no gardener and a garden with one is the garden. It is much easier to explain ordered existence as a purposeful act than an accident. Chaos is found in nature all the time but what do we seek to do – order it. This is the reason for morals, social structures, and community. We seek to put things in their proper place. If a smudge appears on your window your first instinct is to clean it: why? For a window to be a perfect window it cannot have smudges. Likewise, a man should not kill another man because it is not in man to do so. With the window we clean it; with the human we… Therefore, it follows that if someone says that something is one thing then they are attributing to it qualities which, if the person or thing is acting in accordance with its nature, define it. If its exhibited qualities do not match what the thing is then it is re-ordered to function properly. This presupposes three main points: 1) function, 2) dysfunction, and 3) redemption. For any of the three of these to be true a case must be made for purpose. If a case is made for purpose, then a separate case must be made for a purposer, namely a creator.
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