George Will: I Am a 'Low-Voltage Atheist'

http://www.newsmax.com ^ | September 23, 2014 | Jason Devaney

[NKP_Vet]

In a wide-ranging interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George Will discusses baseball, politics, and his status as an atheist.

"I'm an atheist. An agnostic is someone who is not sure. I'm pretty sure. I see no evidence of God," Will told Real Clear Religion.

"The basic question in life is not, 'Is there a God,' but 'Why does anything exist?' St. Thomas Aquinas said that there must be a first cause for everything, and we call the first cause 'God.' Fine, but it just has no hold on me.

"I majored in religion in college. I was very interested, but I just came to a different conclusion. I'm married to a fierce Presbyterian, and she raised our kids fierce Presbyterians.

"I'm an amiable, low-voltage atheist."

This is not the first time Will, a conservative who has written several books on politics and baseball, has made his views on religion public. In May, he told The Daily Caller that he was an atheist.

In the Real Clear Religion interview, Will was asked whether his atheistic views would preclude him from running for office as a conservative.

"It would be impossible for me to run for high office as a Republican," Will said. "Since I have no desire to run for office, it's a minor inconvenience! I think William F. Buckley put it well when he said that a conservative need not be religious, but he cannot despise religion.

"Russell Kirk never quite fathomed this, which is one of the reasons why I'm not a big fan of "The Conservative Mind." For him, conservatism without religion is meaningless."

As for the current state of religion in U.S. politics, Will said it is partly based on being politically correct.

[lonestar]

He's having a problem admitting his 15 minutes are up.

Nobody cares what he thinks or is.

[Alex Murphy]

"I'm an atheist. An agnostic is someone who is not sure. I'm pretty sure. I see no evidence of God," Will told Real Clear Religion.

"People break down into two groups.

When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign - evidence - that there is someone up there watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"

-- Graham Hess, from the M. Night Shyamalan film Signs