I believe in belief—or rather: I have faith in having faith. Yet, I am an atheist (or a "bright" as some would have it). How can that be?

It is important to have faith, but not necessarily in God. Faith is important far outside the realm of religion: having faith in other people, in oneself, in the world, in the existence of truth, justice and beauty. There is a continuum of faith, from the basic everyday trust in others to the grand devotion to divine entities.

Recent discoveries in behavioural sciences, such as experimental economics and game theory, shows that it is a common human attitude towards the world to have faith. It is vital in human interactions; and it is no coincidence that the importance of anchoring behaviour in riskful trust is stressed in worlds as far apart as Søren Kierkegaard's existentialist christianity and modern theories of bargaining behaviour in economic interactions. Both stress the importance of the inner, subjective conviction as the basis for actions, the feeling of an inner glow.

One could say that modern behavioral science is re-discovering the importance of faith that has been known to religions for a long time. And I would argue that this re-discovery shows us that the activity of having faith can be decoupled from the belief in divine entities.

So here is what I have faith in: We have a hand backing us, not as a divine foresight or control, but in the very simple and concrete sense that we are all survivors. We are all the result of a very long line of survivors who survived long enough to have offspring. Amoeba, rodents and mammals. We can therefore have confidence that we are experts in survival. We have a wisdom inside, inherited from millions of generations of animals and humans, a knowledge of how to go about life. That does not in any way imply foresight or planning ahead on our behalf. It only implies that we have a reason to trust out ability to deal with whatever challenges we meet. We have inherited such an ability.

Therefore, we can trust each other, ourselves and life itself. We have no guarantee or promises for eternal life, not at all. The enigma of death is still there, ineradicable. 

But we a reason to have confidence in ourselves. The basic fact that we are still here—despite snakes, stupidity and nuclear weapons—gives us reason to have confidence in ourselves and each other, to trust others and to trust life. To have faith.

Because we are here, we have reason for having faith in having faith.

From the back porch at Craig and Kim's house in Chama, NM

• "See why dental is not in most plans a tooth aches hurt more than a back aches and no teeths depresses people"
• "I would introduce a bill to make all the state vacant land that are open field and along the high way a farm and this farm will plant corn products and other plant life that can be use for alterative fuel"
• "Free the slaves at traffic stops from false arrest and jury fixing"
• "Education ,let us put phonics back in school if you can not read you can not do History, Math, English. And that where we are now. Let make it mandatory in high school to read the minutes to the U.S. Congress , the Congressional Globe the real history of the U.S."

You can read all of Basil's thoughts and get a look at his spiffy uniform at his website here. And here's a YouTube video of Basil. (I hope.) "Hi, I'm Basil Marceaux.com." I wish I lived in Tennessee!

(Thanks to Jason in Gardner, the Chair City)

I was wondering if Sarah Palin had already endorsed or "fudiated" Basil, so I checked her Facebook page, and read this: "Todd, Willow, and I are headed out to Kodiak and Afognak to meet with logging families on the forested islands. As we work and sightsee on America’s largest island we’ll get to view more majestic bears . . ." Sarah must have been out sick the day the geography class studied American Islands. Hawaii, the Big Island, is larger than Kodiak. Could it be she doesn't consider Obama's birthplace as part of the U.S.? 

A sign in Holy Trinity Park, Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico

An interview with Debra Monroe in Bookslut.

“I’m obsessed with inventing stories for people I come across. An overwhelming curiosity makes me ask myself what their lives might be like. I want to know what they do, where they’re from, their names, what they’re thinking about at that moment, what they regret, what they hope for, whom they’ve loved, what they dream of . . . and if they happen to be women (especially youngish ones), then the urge becomes intense. How quickly you would want to see that one naked, admit it, and naked through to her heart. How you try to learn where she’s coming from, where she’s going, why she’s here and not elsewhere! While letting your eyes wander all over her, you imagine love affairs for her, you ascribe deep feelings to her.  You think of what her bedroom looks like, and a thousand things besides . . . right down to the battered slippers into which she must slip her feet when she gets out of bed.”  Gustave Flaubert (Egyptian travel journal)

As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway, he placed his ear to the ground and, with his heart in his throat, silently mouthed to his companion, “Arm yourself, Watson, there is an evil hand afoot ahead." --Dennis Pearce