I'm listening to books on tape/CD whilst packing. One of the books I just finished was a gift from Mom: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. On a number of levels it's a fine and rather deep novel. It's first person from the point of view of an dying man with a five year old son, and a young wife. He's a third generation Methodist preacher writing to his son, for his son to read in his adulthood. His father and grandfather were at odds, and it's clear that in the end he had problems with his own father. But the main conflict of the book is between the narrator and the forty year old man his best friend named for him. That man has done some horrible thing, that is hinted at but doesn't get disclosed until late in the book. The thing is immoral. My irritation is that the man is atheist, and somehow that seems to be why he's lived a wasted life. The narrator eventually discovers that he is a good man, yet the life remains wasted. It is a generally perceptive book, though not very perceptive about atheists.
So, besides Giliad which you probably have not received as a gift, how do you deal with kindly meant but pointed gifts from theists to whom you are close?
So, besides Giliad which you probably have not received as a gift, how do you deal with kindly meant but pointed gifts from theists to whom you are close?
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
