Preston
Dear Preston,
I must confess that I didn't finish reading your last e-mail. The nanosecond that I saw you hint at "Charles
and Julia" I closed the message because I feared you were giving some information that I haven't yet
reached in the story.
But thanks for the prayer. I think last night in the middle of my slumber I felt an indescribable tingling
feeling in the netherparts. That must have been God letting me know he had been notified of my infirmity!
Sincerely,
Greg
Dear Greg:I was thinking that I shouldn't say anything about ...Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed that tingling. At our age, all such experiences are blessings. Actually,
when it comes to the netherparts, God's resume is pretty impressive-the imposition of temporary sterility,
orchestrating a virgin birth, etc. In the Old Testament there's a book called Song of Songs (or Canticles).
God's never mentioned in the book-it's just good fleshy literature. You should check it out if the tingling
returns.
May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth.... Come, my lover, let us go to the
countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.
Song of Songs 7:9-11
Here's the part of the previous note you missed: We agree that morality generally conceived comes
naturally to people. James Q. Wilson's book The Moral Sense does a great job of accumulating social
scientific research to show that this is so. Wilson sees that, relative to their counterparts, religious folks
tend to volunteer more, they give more to charity, they tend to share household chores more, they have
more stable relationships, they take fewer illicit drugs, they kill themselves less often, etc.
If all people were equal before the law and in the eyes of God, all had some claim to consideration and
equitable treatment.
James Q. Wilson, social theorist (1993)
Anyway, I want to pass by you some comparisons I make between our respective faiths. These thoughts
have occurred to me while reading E. O. Wilson's Consil ience and while thinking about your earlier
notes.
Reasonable faiths. Both Christian theism and materialistic naturalism are reasonable because they
work. Since its beginnings, Christian faith has changed lives for the better-murderers have become saints,
drug addicts have become social workers, the excessively proud have adjusted to reality, etc.
Materialistic naturalism has also helped to make lives better in that it has rescued people from brainless