In the myriad comments on my last post, many points were made about God’s role, or lack thereof, in Eve Carson’s death, and God’s role in tragedy on earth in general. But oddly even a tragedy as momentously sad as this does little to change people’s opinions. Religious folks pray to God for solace. Non-religious folks take solace in knowing no benevolent God could allow something like this to happen. I was reminded of a childhood telephone game: less listening to what is really said, and more hearing of what you want to hear, and passing it along in the place of truth.
I was in San Antonio for spring break and went to one of those real human body exhibits at a local museum. Every nerve and tendon and muscle and bone was on display and they even had a prenatal section showing the different stages of a fetus in the womb. My pre-med and science major friends were a little more enthused about the whole thing than us humanities kids, but when we left the museum an even more interesting division arose. Those who believed in evolution saw the intricacies of the bodies as proof of their belief. Those who believed in God saw the intricacies as proof of that belief, too. Same with those who believed in intelligent design, in a little bit of God and a little bit of evolution, or in something in between. Whatever ideas people brought to the exhibit were simply confirmed by the hardened blood vessels and dissected hearts and showcased eyeballs. The old adage was reversed: believing was seeing.
To me, the spinal cord in the glass case results both from God’s artistry combining beautifully with years of natural selection. To someone else it emblemizes the artistry of nature and science and nothing else. We see what we want to see. We understand in light of what we know. We explain things with the mental and emotional tools we have in our personal toolbox. We’re all trying to do the best we can.
Tragedy is the ultimate test of this. When Eve died I tried to make sense of it with my mind and when that didn’t work I looked for consolation in my religion. Do Christians try to further their religion in the wake of a sad event? Of course they do, and not in a distasteful way but in a way that brings comfort to themselves, and—they hope—comfort to others. And often, unexpectedly, God is used not as a presence to explain the inexplicable (the Book of Common Prayer tells us He is “beyond all understanding,” anyway), but simply as a presence. He is there. He listens. Do I believe this now because I believed it before? Yes. Do I use these tools because they were placed in the toolbox of a certain wary little five-year-old on Sunday mornings at Christ Church? Well, yes. That doesn’t make them any less useful or any less true, and through campus tragedies and dissected hearts, they’ve served me well thus far.
Perhaps, then, the telephone game is not so bad, as long as we listen with open ears and then interpret with our beliefs and personal hang-ups and joys and fears. We’re all seeing the same glass-encased spinal cord, but I’m sure an orthopedic surgeon would view it with a different perspective than a poet. That’s okay; in fact, it improves us all. Makes for good post-museum discussion, too.
Comments (6)
'Nothing more can or need be said; no need for a "God" or a religion to explain the killing: they're not in the chain of causality."
Honestly, I don't think you truly understand Erin's point. In her last essay, she argued that God was not the cause of Eve Carson's murder, and he did not allow it happen, but rather, it just occured. The crime was random in all senses of the word. There is no understandable chain of causality in such a random crime, besides the obvious envirormental factors that led the young men involved so far astray, but the point is that God allows us to transcend this causality that you emphasize so deeply.
Through my religion, I could cry a little easier knowing that a higher power was in my prescence. In the long run, it didn't necesarily make the murder any easier to stomach, but my religion provided a comforting prescence to help me cope with the senseless loss of such a powerful young woman.
Posted March 19, 2008 10:20 PM
Posted on March 19, 2008 22:20
Erin,
"When Eve died I tried to make sense of it with my mind and when that didn’t work I looked for consolation in my religion."
You were like me when I was in college and got totally stuck in trying to solve a math or physics problem.
But I didn't throw up my intellectual "hands" and turn to religion to find the answer. I went back to using my mind to solve the problem. I think you should do the same.
Here's a perhaps-helpful hint:
Buddhists say that "everything is the product of causes and conditions".
Start with the facts of the killing. Trace every event and sub-event to its immediately preceding factual event. Then keep going back down the chain of causality.
There's your explanation of the how and why of the murder.
You may even get as far back as the Big Bang to trace out how the murder came to be. Once you get back to the Big Bang singularity, you can't do anything more to find the explanation. The Big Bang singularity simply WAS, and it led up through a chain of causality to the murder.
Nothing more can or need be said; no need for a "God" or a religion to explain the killing: they're not in the chain of causality.
Posted March 19, 2008 10:06 AM
Posted on March 19, 2008 10:06
NOTICE: iNTENT To SUE after failing to heed me et al humble request:
ATTENTION: WAPO, N.Y. Times, N.Y.Post, et al:
Ye have used "Bad Judgement" and Ye have openly Discriminated against Us and ye are also in out-right (wrong) "ViOLATION" of This Holy Cosmic Nations U.S. CONSTiTUTiON, Federal Law(s) (i.e., FCC Rules etc..) Federal Court Order.. etc..
"i" Warned ye!
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March 19, 2008 8:08 AM
Posted March 19, 2008 8:17 AM
Posted on March 19, 2008 08:17
It seems to me that Erin isn't trying to slip a "confirmation bias" under our noses, but rather stating it outright as a way that different philosophies can reflect and nurture a coexistence and possibly a dialogue between different views and beliefs commonly held. It seems that Erin was eloquently describing a situation that she is able to apply to her religious beliefs, and sharing it with others.
But if that shames UNC, then bring on the shame train baby.
Posted March 19, 2008 12:50 AM
Posted on March 19, 2008 00:50
You've discovered confirmation bias. And you actually seem to be arguing that it is a good thing.
Deep, deep shame on UNC.
Posted March 18, 2008 4:46 PM
Posted on March 18, 2008 16:46
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Att: OBAMA, NAACP, & Friends of The NATION OF ISLAM, U.S.A. etc..
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFQWuk4nuo&feature=related
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Posted March 17, 2008 2:17 PM
Posted on March 17, 2008 14:17