How to be Kedar

I used an analogy yesterday, in an argument about the nature of God, that God is a black box.

think about this.

there’s a lot of the stuff in the world that I don’t know. I will admit that. can you admit that there is a lot of stuff in the world that you don’t know?

now let’s say that there is a mystery box, and we have to figure out what is inside. there is absolutely no way of opening the box, shaking the box, scanning the box with electromagnetic waves, taking the temperature of the box, smelling what’s inside the box, etc.

basically, you have no way of figuring out what’s inside this mystery box. that’s why it’s called a mystery box!

so you can talk about what you think is inside the box. one person thinks it’s a pair of underwear. another person thinks it’s a cat. another person thinks that it’s just an empty box. the funny thing is, a lot of people are really REALLY sure that they know what is or isn’t inside that box.

in computer science, this is called a ‘black box’.

God is a black box. how can you test whether or not there is a God?

a good answer – you can’t. but don’t despair. religion isn’t about proving. it is about giving and receiving hope and faith. it is about being kind and loving to other creatures. it is about enjoying the gift of life, and being grateful and forgiving. religion is about a lot of things – I can tell you what it isn’t about. religion isn’t about hurting other people. religion isn’t about taking other people’s money. religion isn’t about scaring people. religion isn’t about forcing a person to believe something.

if anyone can give me a solid proof that there is or isn’t a God, I can show how you are wrong. if you still want to try, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

now, you can have any kind of faith that you want. but you have to admit that there are things that you don’t know, and be comfortable with the idea that you might be wrong.

if you’re an atheist, maybe God does exist. If you’re religious, maybe God doesn’t exist.