Sermon: Evidence

Proof. Everyone wants it, conditionally. Instead of taking a leap of faith, we refuse to put ourselves in a position to be proven wrong. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's natural. Nobody wants to look the fool.

However, it's conditional. Nobody needs a whole lot of proof to believe false accusations. We seem to accept the premise if we don't believe it affects us. Accusing a man of rape, for instance, instantly brands him as such even if there is no evidence, even if there is aquittal. The media gleefully reports Mr. XYZ is a hideous monster and should be hung by his testicles on a flagpole and be stoned to death.

Not to say that rapists don't deserve it, because they do deserve the harshest of treatments. BUT, perhaps we should wait until we have all the evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it before we break out the torches and pitchforks?

But proof of God? Proof of spirit? Proof of the soul?

We all feel shame and guilt and regret. That's evidence of the soul, is it not? That we have done something wrong, or, even more generally, less than right? That's proof of the inner soul, is it not?

I mean, if you look at the universe, if our planet was only a few inches too far we'd freeze to death, a few inches too close and we'd burn to death. Life as we know it simply would not exist. If that's not evidence of a devine hand, then I don't know what is.

Not to say that anyone's got it right. In EverQuest, there are 12 gods to pledge faith to. In-Character, as far as they know, they are sculptors. Not quite. From what I remember of the story, there's legends of a dragon that created the gods, and some life. The gods were envious and made some life on their own as they saw fit. Like, the Dark Elves are children of Innoruuk or some shit like that. I don't remember exactly.

See, now, ICly, the characters have no way of knowing that their entire world was really sculpted by a bunch of cats at Verant Interactive, a subsideary of Sony Computer Entertainment America. They are the true gods. But there are no clues of this reality in the game. None.

Now that we have the suggestion of evidence of the existance of God, one has to wonder whether God wants to be known, or if he will just back off and watch His children go about things their own way.

One thing is certain: God will not force you to believe anything. There is trust in that, trust in our free will. Trust our souls.

Unfortunately, we don't have that kind of psychic ability to know what is right all the time. That's ok. We all make mistakes. But, the trick is learning from those mistakes.

Diana told me something this weekend. She looked into my eyes and told me a little something about myself. It's nothing I don't already know, but it's interesting to know that I broadcast that information. And, in a tangent from that, she pointed out some evidence of bad behavior on my part.

Linda, I'm really, really sorry. I was presented with evidence that I was leading you on. I did not intend to do so, but that doesn't excuse it. Just because the mentally ill can kill in insanity doesn't make it RIGHT.

I will be completely decisive and will avoid to suggest that you can still win my Manxistyle. The turn off was that you couldn't embrace me completely, as I wanted at that time. I'm done being a creature that girls can have out of curiosity: I'd rather be a creature that girls can have out of lust instead. Sure, you possess some of that, but it started as a mere curiosity and so I thereby denied it. I can't give you a good birthday next week, no matter how much I would like to. Right now, though, it's mostly because I'm "restless" and not because it's you. I don't want to be that guy who would use you that way. At this point, I can't cross my signals.

I know you understand, but I wanted to appologize, Red. In public: where it counts.

Evidence in plain sight for all to see.