Wednesday, April 07, 2010

traveling


Today I'll be traveling across the breadth of northern Utah, about 200 miles, which will take close to four hours.

I'll be visiting with a former student of mine and his wife in Ogden for a day or two, and then point the insecto north and west, heading for Seattle and home, such as it is.

Utah has been an education, and last night by some strange coincidence PBS ran a documentary, "The Mormons." I'm in awe and a bit envious of the strength people here derive from their faith. Since I accept nothing on faith, I'll never experience that kind of security. I'd rather be independent, which requires a different sort of fortitude than religious believers enjoy.

Utah is an authoritarian patriarchy. It's the diametrical opposite of my northwest home, whose social outlook I would characterize as aggressively politically correct.

It's a good day to travel; the sun is shining bright and the roads should be clear.

2 comments:

Joe said...

Dave, when we accept things on faith we basically are acceding to the notion that it OK to be untruthful in reality. We don't want to be true to nothing more than desires which may be founded on false knowledge. A life based on fantasy is generally quite bad.

©∂†ß0X∑® said...

Joe, I think that the things people have faith in are not necessarily false, and may in fact be true.

If I have faith that God loves me, then I believe several things on faith -- that there is a God, that he or she is aware of my existence and feels affectionate toward me, etc.

These things may be true or false, but are not susceptible to proof.