developed totally independently in time and geography. Religious types might say that is evidence for
God. Naturalists say it is evidence for no God.
In any event, if people want to believe in God, I have no problem with them. But if they want to tell me
that God is a kind of truth or knowledge that I am ignorant of, I ask them how I can be more educated.
They usually say, "First you have to have faith." Then I realize their knowledge is something that is
personal and holds nothing for me, or for society. I have written many songs about this, in fact.
Sincerely,
Greg
Dear Greg:
I appreciate the time you take to write; I know you're busy. Of course, I'm busy too-but I look forward to
hearing from you. I spend my days with Christians, many of whom are very bright, a few of whom are
brilliant. But it is nice to get out of that neighborhood, so to speak.
The world of today needs Christians who remain Christians.... What the world expects of Christians is
that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and they should voice their condemnation [of evil] in
such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man.
Albert Camus, philosopher and writer (1948)
I'm going to take up your suggestion and read Homer Smith's book and something by E. O. Wilson.
Would you recommend Consilience?
At the end of my high school years I read a lot of stuff by atheists-Camus, Sartre, the Huxleys and
Bertrand Russell. In the end I was deeply impressed only with Camus. In addition to his deep humanity, I
appreciated that he had taken the time to study serious Christian philosophy-much of his dissertation
concerned the thought of St. Augustine, and he knew that the Bible was serious literature.
My surmise (shared by some scholars) is that he had become a Christian, albeit a very idiosyncratic
one, before his death, or that he was very close to doing so. Even if I didn't think that, I'd still value his
writing immensely. He saw deeply into simple things.
Bertrand Russell's general essays struck me as fatuous garbage, and I've never felt compelled to change
that view. I did ostentatiously read his book Why I Am Not a Christian at a Billy Graham "crusade" in
Anaheim, but that's the only fun I gained from his flimsy polemics. (His History of Western Philosophy, on
the other hand, is good.)
I honestly don't remember much about the Huxleys, except that I was reading Aldous's book The Doors
of Perception on the value of hallucinogenic drugs when I was in the Navy, and an officer who happened
to see me didn't approve. (Not that I had any interest in taking drugs at the time. I was just on a Huxley
kick.)