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Acknowledgement of faith crucial for discussion

RE: Betterment of species by Jimmie Braley

By Tanith Murphy-Bixby

Faith and environmental problem solving are incompatible?

Mr. Braley, it’s only fair to begin my response on a positive note; I have never read an opening sentence that so completely captured my attention as did the one in your article, “Betterment of species over nature is discreditable.” Aesthetically, it was a bit nihilistic for my taste (though that describes your piece as a whole), but by no means does that invalidate the meaningful and altogether necessary point you made.

My intrigue and objection lies not with your fatalistic tone, but with your disregard — or is there a better euphemism for contempt? — of “spirituality” and the general practice of facing crises with faith. You stipulated, or rather, asked your readers to “imagine for a moment” that a benevolent deity basically doesn’t exist. (I hope that’s accurate paraphrasing.) Since your article was essentially predicated on that assumption, I must ask: What if the opposite is true? If “our incredible ability to comprehend our environment and ourselves is not without some merit,” isn’t it fair to give the benefit of the doubt to a concept to which countless billions of humans have devoted themselves? Whether or not a God exists, enough of humankind is affected by faith, and choices made as a result thereof, for even the greatest cynic to pragmatically lend it at least hypothetical validity: at worst, it merits acknowledgement for the purposes of discussion.

If I may paraphrase again, one of the most thought provoking of your suggestions was that of solving our species’ problems ourselves rather than focusing on grace and/or assistance from God. My question to you is this: why do you believe the two to be mutually exclusive?

Perhaps we could talk it over sometime — maybe after throwing rotten fruit at candidates at the DNC. (Say when, and I’ll be there.)

Tanith Murphy-Bixby, student evilfuzzymonster@gmail.com