Page 56 - Liberating Liberals V2

Meaning-Making Maestros
we understand much more about the universe than we did, and that suggests we’ll understand still more — but it’s no proof. Many liberals tend towards the leap of faith that it’s possible for humanity to eventually understand most of the universe, but we can’t be sure.
The main point is, we cannot currently be definitive about whether God exists or not. Science cannot currently prove one way or the other. We
can have our personal beliefs of course— theist, agnostic, atheist or somewhere in between — but all such beliefs, even the belief that science will someday explain everything, currently involves an extensive leap of faith.
It’s like when the zookeeper saw a chimpanzee reading the Bible in one hand and Darwin’s Origin of the Species in the other. “Why’re you reading both books?” asked the zookeeper. “Because,” said the chimp, “I’m trying to figure out whether I’m my brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother.”43
Thus we need not get vociferous over the existence or non-existence of God in our discussions with religious conservatives. Both liberals and conservatives are taking large leaps of faith in this area. As Brother Walt Whitman admonished: “Argue not concerning God.”44
Of course we can still be angry that many conservatives have the stupendous amount of self- righteousness needed to believe many liberals are going to Hell. Or angry that religious conservatives
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