Glen’s recent guestbook entry was very thought provoking, and represents, I think, where a lot of people come from with respect to religious beliefs. I think the recognition that benefit to society can take precedence over individual benefit is an important one. That’s the importance of community, which I want to point out, yet again, does not have to be religious community. Glen also brings up the point you can’t leave reason behind at the church doorstep.

There’s a perceptive letter lead-off letter in this week’s New Yorker (1/16) weighing in on the Intelligent Design (ID) debate. It points out that ID has more to do with Deism than Christianity. One of my American heroes, Tom Paine, was a Deist, and Thomas Jefferson was also generally reckoned to be one also. Regarding Tom Paine, I remember as a child having the house where he worked for a while as a stay-maker, in Sandwich England, being pointed out to me by my father. Just a couple of years ago I visited the Tom Paine museum in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Paine had a very mixed life, including an unfortunate entanglement with the French Revolution, but his role in fostering support for the American Revolution through the publication of “Common Sense” was significant. The fact that many of the heroes and founding fathers of the early American state were not, in fact, Christians, seems to have been erased from popular American understanding.

Deism allows for a God, known by his works, but a Deist’s God does not take sides. Here’s a quote from one of Paine’s later books, the “Age of Reason” that I’ve found inspiring:

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches—whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish—appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise. They have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

[later]

Martin, my brother, is staying with us from Spain for a few days. It’s great to be able to renew family ties. He’s also able to give Mo a break from ferrying me back and forth to the hospital. Miranda rates his skills as an English Language Arts homework help above mine – well, he is a translator, so he spends a lot more time thinking about language than I do. I’m happy to say that I still have the edge as a Math (Maths as it’s called in England) homework helper – Martin says he has no problem conceding that to me.

Tomorrow should be a short day – I just have to have an intrathecal injection, rest up for half-an-hour, drink a cup of coffee, and come back home. Still feeling pretty good.