NPR might turn me into an atheist
I drive for an hour every morning now, down the NJ Turnpike, through an industrial wasteland, past the Newark Airport, toward the threshold between marsh and suburb that runs north-south in northeastern NJ. On the way I listen to NPR, which I never used to do because I didn't have the time in the morning in my previous jobs. But I'm a lazy reader of news so I decided to force myself to listen - like taking an aural mental vitamin.
The Morning Edition has grown on me. It's nugget after nugget of story and history I never knew or forgot long ago since 8th grade Social Studies. Last week I learned of an illegal Brazilian food truck that was home to hundreds of cabbies in SF and how the food united ethnic groups that would have otherwise never intermingled. I listened to a synopsis of the life of Gordon Parks (who just passed away) who was not only one of the first African-Americans who gained national renown as a photographer but was also a poet, a composer, an actor, a writer and a film director (he was a high school drop out). I learned about Michelle Bachelet who just became the first woman president of Chile (Pinochet, the man who killed her father and imprisoned her and her mother decades ago, sits under house arrest) and that Sandra Day O'Connor is an eloquent essayist.
The net effect of listening, by the time I got to my destination one particular morning, was a warm feeling of pride in Humanity. I learned about all of the wonderful, unique and improbable things people do all over the world and it made me feel connected to everyone. It also made me wonder why people still need God(s) to not feel afraid or alone. I believe Man created God to create security for himself and so, based on this assumption, I do not believe in God at all. But I also have no reasonable explanation for why DNA orders itself to make cells or organs or a whole person (that is one thing that never failed to astound me when I looked through a microscope. I would ask, "How can this be?" How can these molecules know that they must organize for an end result that is so much larger and complex than themselves?).
I wonder if NPR will turn me from an agnostic into an atheist. I plan to keep listening for the next 5 weeks so I should balance it out with a few trips to the science museum and a nature preserve. Imagine Science reinforcing faith in God.
I drive for an hour every morning now, down the NJ Turnpike, through an industrial wasteland, past the Newark Airport, toward the threshold between marsh and suburb that runs north-south in northeastern NJ. On the way I listen to NPR, which I never used to do because I didn't have the time in the morning in my previous jobs. But I'm a lazy reader of news so I decided to force myself to listen - like taking an aural mental vitamin.
The Morning Edition has grown on me. It's nugget after nugget of story and history I never knew or forgot long ago since 8th grade Social Studies. Last week I learned of an illegal Brazilian food truck that was home to hundreds of cabbies in SF and how the food united ethnic groups that would have otherwise never intermingled. I listened to a synopsis of the life of Gordon Parks (who just passed away) who was not only one of the first African-Americans who gained national renown as a photographer but was also a poet, a composer, an actor, a writer and a film director (he was a high school drop out). I learned about Michelle Bachelet who just became the first woman president of Chile (Pinochet, the man who killed her father and imprisoned her and her mother decades ago, sits under house arrest) and that Sandra Day O'Connor is an eloquent essayist.
The net effect of listening, by the time I got to my destination one particular morning, was a warm feeling of pride in Humanity. I learned about all of the wonderful, unique and improbable things people do all over the world and it made me feel connected to everyone. It also made me wonder why people still need God(s) to not feel afraid or alone. I believe Man created God to create security for himself and so, based on this assumption, I do not believe in God at all. But I also have no reasonable explanation for why DNA orders itself to make cells or organs or a whole person (that is one thing that never failed to astound me when I looked through a microscope. I would ask, "How can this be?" How can these molecules know that they must organize for an end result that is so much larger and complex than themselves?).
I wonder if NPR will turn me from an agnostic into an atheist. I plan to keep listening for the next 5 weeks so I should balance it out with a few trips to the science museum and a nature preserve. Imagine Science reinforcing faith in God.
posted by AETYL at 7:42 PM
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