Dry

But questions cannot go unanswered unless they first be asked. And there is a far worse anxiety, a far worse insecurity, which comes from being afraid to ask the right questions--because they might turn out to have no answer. One of the moral disease we communicate to one another in society comes from huddling together in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask.
From: No Man is an Island

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I wonder if when Merton wrote the above passage he thought about atheists/agnostics turning the last line against him. I wonder if he ever considered that "the God hypothesis" may be "the pale light of an insufficient answer." What if the thought of no God is the question we're all afraid to ask?,

Lately I've been participating in a blog comprised of scientists and a few theologians. The purpose of the blog is (broadly) to talk about the relationship between religion, science, and the modern world (I think). I've been hesitant to post, and have kept my own thoughts rather private. I know that my beliefs aren't rational. That doesn't stop me from having them.

I've been pretty intimidated by the intellectual level of the posts. Nothing like fear of your own inadequacy to keep you from explaining what you think.

My own conversion is difficult to talk about. It's so hard to try to convey a feeling to people who deal primarily with empirical data. That doesn't make my feelings any less real, I suppose, but I'm not sure if trying to share them in this medium is going to work. I'm in the middle of a minor spiritual crisis myself (previous post) and part of me feels like my time might be more productively spent trying to find my own path again before I try to discuss that path with others. It seems arrogant to post on things pertaining to faith when I'm struggling with bits of it myself.

First of all, although all men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation in fear and trembling. We can help one another find the meaning of life, no doubt. But in the last analysis the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting this responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am, and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity , who is going to identify you?

From: No Man is an Island