Another Truth

(Snoopy image from joyintheaftermath.com)

The Economist asks seven writers, Does Life Have Meaning?, and their responses are disquisitions on the universe, consciousness, life, and death. While interesting, their pencil-chewing reveals another truth: the intellectual elite are very different from the rest of society.

Were one to ask the average American person a question about life's meaning, the words "God" or "Jesus" (or "Mohammed" or "Buddha") would appear at least once in his or her answer. But they're nowhere to be found in any of the writers' responses. (Mentioning any of those names in a non-mocking manner results in immediate expulsion from the club of cognoscenti; witness the sneering opprobrium heaped on the head of a politician who said that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.)

The Economist and its writers have evolved beyond the infantile superstitions of the hoi polloi.

Long after their words have been forgotten, though, I suspect people will still be reciting these:

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.