felix culpa.

I often think about how queer it is that I would rather be in a room with Adam than with Stalin. Scratch that—I’d want to be good friends with Adam. I find him attractive, and intriguing. I think we’d have a whole lot in common. But this is strange. For on the Christian story, he walked with God. Whatever that phrase is supposed mean, it must mean that he saw and beheld Goodness itself, unadulterated, and without confusion. We’re told that he, unlike any of the rest of us, save for the God-man, was without blemish. He inherited no vice, for God called nature “good” and there were no vicious characters from whom he could have. Nor did Adam have the misfortune of being hurt or abandoned by the ones whom he loved. For again, God was capable, Adam was complete in Eve, and God called nature “good.”

And yet, it wasn’t enough. Adam beheld his own Maker, his own Heavenly Father—and saw that in Him all things live and move have their being, including himself—and he still said:

I don’t need you.

Under such conditions, Jesus’ forgive them Father for they know not what they do is simply inapplicable.

Even the atheist should recognize that if God really exists, this at least as bad as anything Stalin ever did. Actually, it’s infinitely worse…

I think my fondness for Adam over Stalin betrays my latent atheism.