On Ignorance and a Dark Mist.

That horrible business of the Paris shooting is being cited, not unreasonably, as an attack on civilisation and free speech. The concept of civilisation is subjective, of course, but it’s still a reasonable position in the circumstances. For me, however, the pre-eminent question it raises has been asked for as long as humans have had the mind to ask it:

Can any cause be more important than the lives of individuals?

My instinctive answer would be ‘no,’ but it takes only a matter of seconds to see the relative components of the dispute start dropping into place, and realising that there’s no definitive answer because none of us knows what life is about. For me, that’s the point at which life gets veiled yet again in a dark mist of uncertainty and infinitely variable perception. It also raises another question:

If God really does exist, can we ever hope to reach It without first removing the barrier of religion once and for all?

Is that a contradiction in terms? Some would say so, but I don’t know.

I hate making posts like this. I’m off to hide behind some jolly music now.