Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

for instance, the universe is just a matter-of-fact reality — ‘damaged’ or otherwise — there is no suggestion of blame. With God though, things get very much more complex. That does not mean that the answer does not lie with God, of course. Maybe the universe really is more complex than science allows. Maybe the universe is fundamentally moral, and only God can give the answers to its moral nature, if only we could figure this out.

Of course, dear reader, if you are a believer then you’ll probably want to bring in some other factors beyond the purely philosophical views of God I’ve been advancing thus far.

What of faith? What of revelation?

You may simply accept, as an act of faith that, despite appearances, God has made things so that they work out perfectly, even although we cannot explain exactly how or why.

Fair enough.

I suppose my preference is to hold the paradox (and many other paradoxes) before us at all times. There’s a lot that we do not know and only a few things that we do know. This is our existential position. Therefore, how should we live? Perhaps religious people — perhaps almost all people — prefer answers of some sort. Perhaps they do not want their beliefs constantly challenged. But actually, if you take religion’s extra paths to truth — scriptures and revelation — then in a way you arrive back at the same place.

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