The Harder Debate

E.D. Kain vents:

...all of this talk on whether or not God exists is simply pointless.  It means nothing, signifies nothing.  It has no bearing on the world itself.  We all believe what we believe, and no 300-page diatribe will change that, be it religious or atheistic or agnostic.  What matters is how humans interact.  What matters are those fault lines where religion, atheism, politics, culture, language, economics, and history intersect and the inevitable human consequences that manifest within those intersections.  I imagine a best-seller could be found among some of these themes, though it might not be so easy to pitch.  Taking pot shots at those who have different views is easy money, and the choir loves it.  Really trying to understand this crazy, screwed-up world of ours takes time and empathy and humanity…

But if the Divine exists, how do we regard it as pointless to understand it more deeply? And what else could be more important? I guess this betrays some core beliefs of mine. I do not mean to disparage an alternative understanding of the world. Nor do I disagree with Kain's disparagement of pot-shots on either side. But the religious question will never be banished from the human mind, even it is resolved only in mystery and epistemological modesty.