The Pope - My Fake Diary

Saturday, 19 May 2012

Help for ahypne reading this diary: When we doubt, we are reminded that we are the creatures and not the creator. I hope this clarifies the position:
To have the certainty we crave, to truly know everything about the mysteries, this would impose a burden and responsibility that would crush our psyche. It's a fair assumption that doubt often arises because we don't have answers to certain hard questions, questions like 'Does God exist?' 'How did the universe come about?' 'How can a loving God allow evil?'

Once we demand those answers, it becomes arbitrary and selfish to try to limit the responses to only the information that would satisfy our specific, narrow inquiries. We cannot act as if we are students who, when reviewing gaps in our notes, want to know only what will be on the exam. In other words, if we are going to seek peace of mind from answers to really hard questions, we have to be willing, both logically and morally, to accept the implications of those answers and the hard truths they convey.

This means that we can't desire to know merely the good things, the things that confirm the optimistic narratives about our lives and fortunes that we unthinkingly craft. I can't seek to reconcile evil with a loving God and expect a response that is communicable on Facebook and Twitter. Instead, I have to be willing to know what evil truly is. I have to be willing not merely to be watched by the abyss, but to awaken it. As allegorised by Dante in The Divine Comedy, I have to be willing to be led into hell.