Patience and anger are kissing cousins.

Some angry atheists don't like being called angry. They are probably right to correct me. They are more like indignant atheists whose frustration grows out of a repressed uncertainty over ultimacy.

Despite their fervent convictions, they express a belief that would be called “faith” in most other contexts.

Anticipating the objection, I will ask the atheist: From what source did the rules that govern the origin of the cosmos originate? Not the matter, not the energy, not the quantum fluctuations, but the rules by which these things operate. The math, the relationships.

I do believe that some thing can come from no thing (theoretically). I don’t believe the relational matrix in which this process happens came from nothing.

But should you go that route, you are merely saying “a first cause isn’t necessary because I've chosen to say so,” or, “there is an explanation, we simply haven’t encountered it yet,” or, “that is the domain of philosophy, not science,” or “we don’t need a first cause, but you can supply one if it makes you happy.”

All that aside (which has no atheistic answer, and if you have one, write a book, you'll become a gabillionaire), when frustration turns to anger, it usually arises from the enormous gulf between what I think (and is obviously right) and what you think (and is obviously wrong).

Patience can come out of that gulf too. Patience and anger are kissing cousins.

[2012-12-18]

c0