This is a topic intermittently on my mind, because of my dear cousin S. Because he has adopted a calm, faithful approach to the disease, and because I am a less intrusive interlocutor than I might appear to be from this blog, I do not know what his official prognosis is. He is hoping to do a retreat at Minster next year - I am hoping to see them there. Since we are all praying for him, we just have to have faith and hope, but it is difficult to maintain these in the face of increasing development of bone cancer. I believe people have come back from the brink from worse states, so I hope he will too. However, the faith can be shaken.
There is a local couple I feel ambiguous about - I feel I have quite a lot in common with her, but I'm sure she doesn't feel the same. Her manner is abrasive, "direct" is how she puts it, but there are other less complimentary descriptions. He has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer - it was caught early, he responded well to treatment and now everything seems hunky-dory - so he can continue his career of being mildly patronising to me and others (he assumes because he is in a small way of being a property developer that he will inevitably know more about any local issues than me or Mark). This cheery pair are really very nice in many ways (I tell myself) but we just don't "click" - the fact that they are very assertive atheists of course may be a factor (although it doesn't usually bother me). Anyway, because of my reticence in questioning Strat I took the advantage of distance and questioned her about his symptoms, since like a good partner she is now very knowledgeable about prostate cancer. "Oh, well, basically he's fucked!" she said. No beating about the bush of course.
If this was (Catholic) fiction, the "fucked" character would go on to miraculously recover thanks to the use of prayer, novenas, relics and the intercession of St. Vincent de Paul - or someone... while the secular character - well, it would be too melodramatic to have him die of secondaries - perhaps he would simply go his merry way, unaware of God's grace and mercy. Unfortunately, this will not be resolved like fiction, and we have a longer, slower wait for an outcome.
Assertive atheism is interesting. If every time some one said to me "I don't believe in God, it's all bollocks, Darwinian evolution- cosmology blah, blah. It's a trap to fool us" I replied simply "I believe in a God who is outside time and space and created the laws of physics and evolution, which I also uphold, and I also believe that Jesus was God in a human form and that he rose from the dead - probably in accordance with quantum theory..." I would of course be regarded as a nutter and a religious maniac, yet I would simply be stating my beliefs without proselytizing. I might even be shunned - when all I am saying is: God and the laws of physics are not incompatible - a scientific attitude towards the development of the universe does not preclude belief in God...unless you want it to, but please don't bully those of us who can't share your atheism.
There is a local couple I feel ambiguous about - I feel I have quite a lot in common with her, but I'm sure she doesn't feel the same. Her manner is abrasive, "direct" is how she puts it, but there are other less complimentary descriptions. He has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer - it was caught early, he responded well to treatment and now everything seems hunky-dory - so he can continue his career of being mildly patronising to me and others (he assumes because he is in a small way of being a property developer that he will inevitably know more about any local issues than me or Mark). This cheery pair are really very nice in many ways (I tell myself) but we just don't "click" - the fact that they are very assertive atheists of course may be a factor (although it doesn't usually bother me). Anyway, because of my reticence in questioning Strat I took the advantage of distance and questioned her about his symptoms, since like a good partner she is now very knowledgeable about prostate cancer. "Oh, well, basically he's fucked!" she said. No beating about the bush of course.
If this was (Catholic) fiction, the "fucked" character would go on to miraculously recover thanks to the use of prayer, novenas, relics and the intercession of St. Vincent de Paul - or someone... while the secular character - well, it would be too melodramatic to have him die of secondaries - perhaps he would simply go his merry way, unaware of God's grace and mercy. Unfortunately, this will not be resolved like fiction, and we have a longer, slower wait for an outcome.
Assertive atheism is interesting. If every time some one said to me "I don't believe in God, it's all bollocks, Darwinian evolution- cosmology blah, blah. It's a trap to fool us" I replied simply "I believe in a God who is outside time and space and created the laws of physics and evolution, which I also uphold, and I also believe that Jesus was God in a human form and that he rose from the dead - probably in accordance with quantum theory..." I would of course be regarded as a nutter and a religious maniac, yet I would simply be stating my beliefs without proselytizing. I might even be shunned - when all I am saying is: God and the laws of physics are not incompatible - a scientific attitude towards the development of the universe does not preclude belief in God...unless you want it to, but please don't bully those of us who can't share your atheism.
No comments:
Post a Comment