42 a poor alternative to Jesus

The flip-side, of course, is that partisan treatment of religious supposition in the public square and school system – Darwin is taught exclusively because only science provides Answers – and atheistic counter-proselytizing – you stupid idiot, there is no God – is, in the end, profoundly prejudicial to the stated objective of human enlightenment.

Reason, you see, cuts both ways. Point out that Christian doctrine is conjectural, and you must also concede it would be contradictory to then expect another to relinquish their belief in the virgin birth or resurrection. Not all opinions are equal does not mean the best or most logical amounts to an objective, this-is-right-everyone-else-is-wrong truth. While OK to inform Tom Cruise, after beating various arguments to within an inch of their lives, that Scientology is a load of bullshit, it's another thing altogether to accuse him of being irrational should he continue to accept that eons ago a galactic warlord called Xenu brought aliens to our planet, placed them in volcanoes and then vaporized them with bombs, causing their souls (aka thetans) to disperse and attach to us humans.

An increasingly intolerant secular society and its militant splinter groups are so disillusioned at the unanswered question of Life, the Universe and Everything, so self-absorbed in conflict and the busyness of modernity, they miss a subtle explanation for the presumed wholesale ignorance.

What if religious extremists are merely servicing the ethereal truth about the truth, reminding us of the limits of reason and the fact that closing the gap between opinion and truth is an individual responsibility based on what ultimately feels right? Perhaps creationists cling to their absurd views despite all the evidence because they intuitively know that the annoyed, artless zealots calling them daft, the clever sophisticates promising to lead humanity to a better place using reason alone, clearly lack a coherent understanding of reality?

Human consciousness will never be completely explained in terms of neuro-science, while arguments regarding the non-existence of God are straw men designed to distract from the unsettling realization that 42, the best secular answer on offer, is a rather lame alternative to the hope and glory of Jesus Christ.

Want reason to reign? Want pointless hostilities to cease and for people to feel the truth within? Then admit reason is at its best when we acknowledge it's ultimately useless.